1. The Bay of Pigs Invasion The Road to the Cuban Missile Crisis

2. Remember the US has been involved in Cuban affairs since the Spanish American War

3. Castro’s Takeover 1956 to 1959 – Castro led a guerrilla coup of Cuba Dictator Fulgencio Batista US suspicious, but Batista had been unpopular and corrupt Ultimately, Castro declared Communism, welcomed USSR aid

4. Nikita Khrushchev Russia leader from 1953 to 1964 Denounced Stalin and his methods Partially de-Saltinized the USSR Behind the beginning of USSR Space Program

5. Castro vs. the US Castro nationalized oil refineries owned by Americans and British firms Took commercial farms and made them communes (US companies controlled 75% of crop land) Castro relied more on USSR aid and political repression

6. Cuban Refugees Many Cubans felt betrayed – one dictator replaced by another 10% of Cuban population went into exile Most to the U.S., many settled in Miami – began a counter-revolutionary movement

7. CIA’s Secret Operation Eisenhower gave CIA permission to secretly train hundreds of Cuban exiles Plan to invade Cuba JFK found out about plan 9 days later Skeptical, but continued with plan

8. U.S. Motives Before 1959 under Batista, U.S. operated businesses in Cuba Castro nationalized businesses – Cuban economy run by Cubans, not American private businesses U.S. felt Castro too much like a communist regime

9. U.S. Attempts to Overthrow Castro Destabilising the Cuban economy By 1960 the US had refused to buy Cuban sugar, the country’s largest export, which threatened to destabilise the Cuban economy. In October 1959 U.S. military aircraft bombed Cuban sugar mills. Counterrevolutionaries also set light to cats and put them into field of sugar cane to destroy crops. 14 th April 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion.

10. The Invasion April 17, 1961 – 1,400 Cubans invaded island’s s. cost at Bahia de Cochinos (or Bay of Pigs)

11. The Invasion Nothing went as planned – Air strike 2 days prior failed to knock out Cuban air force (CIA reported it had) – Small advanced group sent to distract Cuban forces never got there – Other unit landed only to face 20,000 Cuban forces, backed by Soviet tanks and jets

12. Result Troops surrounded, some killed others taken as prisoners Cuban counter-revolutionaries, members of Assault Brigade 2506, after their capture at the Bay of Pigs, Cuba, in April 1961

13. Result Castro turned event into public relations triumph Kennedy looked embarrassed, took blame Negotiated for surviving commandos – paid $52 million in food and medical supplies Kennedy said no more communist expansion in W. Hemisphere Castro welcomed USSR aid.

14. USSR Reaction Source A On April 18, President Kennedy received a letter from Khrushchev saying: It is a secret to no one that the armed bands invading this country were trained, equipped and armed in the United States of America..... It is still not late to avoid the irreparable. The government of the USA still has the possibility of not allowing the flame of war ignited by interventions in Cuba to grow into an incomparable conflagration.... As far as the Soviet Union is concerned, there should be no mistake about our position: We will render the Cuban people and their government all necessary help to repel an armed attack on Cuba.” Kennedy cancelled further US support for the invasion. The US was humiliated and Kennedy appeared to be a weak and inexperienced leader to the whole world.

15. This cartoon, published in one of Cuba's state-run papers shows the president in a collar that symbolizes the fact that he is a slave to capitalism and fascism. The text at the bottom reads "a different dog, but the same collar," indicating the supposedly liberal Kennedy is really no different than any of the presidents who came before him.