There are points to cover on your study of the Bay of Pigs Invasion. By touching lightly on side stories that led to the invasion, the average high school sophomore will be attentive and find the material of particular interest. I have listed these as follows:
1. The History of Cuba
Cuba is a Caribbean Island. The largest, but second most populated island in a chain known as the Greater Antilles. 1n 1492, Christopher Columbus claimed the island for Spain. The Spanish control of the population saw the decline of Cuba's original inhabitants and indigenous people. By the 1820s, while other Latin American countries sought independence from Spain, Cuba held fast to their ties to the European nation. Probably more out of fear of the United States than any love of Spain.
In 1868, Cuba took part in the Ten Years War which was a revolution led by wealthy lawyer/land owner Carlos Manuel de Cespedes. He would later be named president of the Cuban Republic-in-arms, mandating all slaves be free (formal civic equality granted in 1893).
In 1978, The Pact of Zanjon promised Cuba more rights and autonomy from Spain. By the 1890s, the Cuban people would realize that provisions from that pact were not going to be taken in effect and started a new revolution to independence from Spain.
In 1895, a small group of rebels was outnumbered and captured by over 200,000 Spanish troops. 300,000+ Cuban civilians were placed in concentration camplike fortified towns by the Spanish. By this time US and Europe started to protest Spanish rule of the island. Spain promised home rule with a legislature, the native Cubans rejected it and fought on for independence.
US Battleship Maine arrived in Havana to protect a large number of Americans on the island. The Spanish saw this as intimidation. The Maine exploded on March 22nd, 1898, under possible belief it was from a Spanish mine (later believed a coal fire may have started the whole thing), Congress asked for intervention which President McKinley complied.
After the Spanish/American War, Spain surrendered the region (under the 1898 Treaty of Paris) and Cuba received its independence by 1902. But under the Cuban Constitution, the US could intervene in its finances and foreign affairs. The Platt Amendment allowed the US to build a base of its own on Cuba known as Guantanamo Bay (a base still US controlled today).
By 1906, A group of rebels again seized the government, but US intervened and took control. This lead to what Cubans would view as the start of US created corruption on the island. Another rebellion for a black independent state on the island in 1912 was squashed by the government.
Despite continued attacks on the government, the Constitution stayed in place until the 1930s. During the Great Depression, the US was buying and supporting less of Cuba's interests. The Communist party appeared in the region in guise of starting a national strike. Sgt. Fulgencio Batista helped to lead an army against the government that was defeated, but ushered in the socialist ideology that would later take root.
Batista was elected President himself in 1940 under the banner of the Communist Party of Cuba. Batista was an ally to the US during World War II. By Constitutional law, Batista stepped down in 1944 and Ramon Grau became President. He increased government spending. Grau's government opposed Batista and the communists. In 1948, Carlos Prio Socarras succeeded Grau. Corruption mounted and as opposition parties tried to expose.
2. The Mafia influence
After World War II, Lucky Luciano, a convicted member of the mafia, was to be deported by the US back to Sicily, after a prison term. Instead he headed to Cuba and started operations there under Batista's government. (Batista was reported to get a cut of the profits.) He operated hotels and casinos. Under Luciano, profits grew for the Cubans and mob alike though tourism and gambling money. By 1959, with the rise of Fidel Castro and the coming Cuban Revolution, the new Cuban president, Manuel Urrutia Lle nationalized the hotels and casinos, all but shutting out US mob influence.
3. Fidel Castro
In 1952 there was a 3 way race for President of Cuba. Batista again wanting his place in power held a coup. He held office for 2 years before he agreed to democratic elections again. A young rebel named Fidel Castro, attacked Batista forces in an incident an Monacada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba. Castro was captured, tried, incarcerated and later released. He would head to Mexico and wait in exile as he planned what would be the Cuban Revolution.
Side note: Castro was 21 when he was drafted as a pitching prospect by the Pittsburgh Pirate baseball organization. Though known to have a nasty curve and sinker ball, his speed was suspect and scouts gave him a Luke warm chance of making it into the big leagues. His chance at professional baseball ended with competiton in the Latin leagues.
In 1956, 82 revolutionaries led by Castro arrived bt yacht from Mexico and started what would be an armed insurrection against the Batista regime. The revolutions was aided by the help of Ernesto Che Guevero,a staunch supporter of Castro and the revolution. Batista retaliated by oppressing the Cuban people which just fed the revolution.
By 1958, Batista turned to the US for better arms to fight the insurgents. The US countered with an arms embargo to Cuba. Dissident students joined the cause and Castro's forces broke the back of Batista's regime. Batista would escape in exile to Portugal, and later Spain. The US tried to install a puppet government to return order, but the Cuban Revolution had gained control.
Castro became Prime Minister in 1959. He took over private property and kicked out the Mafioso, closing all of their casinos. And though he had promised under his reform program, he never enacted the elections mandated under the Cuban Constitution.
Castro came to the US in 1959 to meet then President Eisenhower. He was snubbed by the US President who chose a golf tournament over a meeting with a young revolutionary. This snub would pay dearly as Castro returned to Cuba and took over all US property and interests without recompense.
4. Anti-Castro Sentiment
Those opposed to the Castro regime and following government would leave Cuba in massive numbers. These Cuban exiles landed in the United States (particularly settling in the Miami area) causing the government to rethink their position on The Cuban powers that be in government. With the large number of refugees arriving from Cuba (including prisoners and mentally ill sent by Castro), this became a national security issue.
5. President Kennedy
Eisenhower finished his second term, but did not see his vice president choice Richard Nixon succeed him. Nixon lost closely in the 1960 presidential election to a young Massachusetts senator (and war hero) John F. Kennedy. Kennedy knew well the communist influence that had been growing in the region. Like his predecessor, he was not happy with the fact that Red Communist influence was hanging around our own back door, less than 90 miles off the coast of the US in Cuba. Kennedy was just in office a few months when the plan to overthrow the Cuban government took shape.
6. The Bay of Pigs
The Bay of Pigs was an unsuccessful attempt at an overthrow of Castro and the Cuban government by Cuban exiles and CIA operatives. The exiles were trained by US troops (and rumored to be supplied by the US mafia seeking to get back their interests on the island) in a plan backed by the US government during the Eisenhower administration and Kennedy himself. It failed. The Cuban forces were supplied and trained by the Eastern Bloc Communists. They defeated the invading forces in only a matter of days. This led to a quick deterioration of US/Cuban relations. Many believe that the US did not support the exile rebellion with enough US military might. Others believe that air support could have made all the difference. What is known is that the Bay of Pigs was a slap in the face of JFK and US diplomacy in the region.
The failure of the Bay of Pigs led to the resignation of top CIA administrators. The CIA in fact posted a report of what went wrong:
A. If the exiles were being attacked in open areas, they could retreat to the mountain areas. (In truth they were bogged down in swamp areas and could not make it to safe mountain areas.
B. The US could not be associated with the attack. (Moscow knew of the training and planning of the attack before it began.)
C. As the Exiles fought the government forces, the "oppressed" people would rise to join them. (Quite the opposite effect.)
The Bay of Pigs was a slap in the face of US diplomacy. Many countries then saw the US as an aggressor. An image that is still reflective today in some quarters of the world.
The Bay of Pigs has taught us that military might cannot be gained haphazardly and without support by the will of the people. It added tension in a region that grew throughout the Cold War and continues today.
Final questions for students:
Would history have been different if Fidel Castro would have fulfilled his dream and become a major league baseball star?
Would Cuba have remained a Communist state had the US military become completely involved?
What feelings did the US citizens have about Communist influence in Cuba during the Cold War?
How could US/Cuban relations change now that the Cold War is over?