April 17th
Today marks the anniversary of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. On April 17th, 1961, Cuban exiles working alongside CIA-operatives advanced into Cuba in an attempt to overthrow Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, and to replace him with a leader who could be more trusted by the U.S.
Fidel Castro, after performing a coup d’etat on the previous Cuban leader, Fulgencio Batista, began an established relationship with Nikita Khrushchev, the leader of the USSR at the time, and became a strong supporter of marxism/communism.
Due to terrible weather, and a terrible airstrike, two days earlier, that left much of the Cuban air force in tact, the Bay of Pigs invasion failed miserably and ended in many of the exiles being captured or swimming away from Cuba once more.
Due to many assassination attempts on Castro’s life, and the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, this lead to Castro’s relationship with the USSR to strengthen, and for another major event, the Cuban Missile Crisis, to start up only a year later…
For more information on today’s mark on history, follow this blog! Thank you!
-
todaysmarkinhistory posted this
