Cuba, 1961 — dissident coup attempt
Event Summary
On 17 April 1961 Brigade 2506, a force of some 1,400 Cuban exiles organized, financed, trained, and directed by the United States Central Intelligence Agency, landed at the Bay of Pigs on the southern coast of Cuba in a failed attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro's revolutionary government. The operation, inherited by President John F. Kennedy from the Eisenhower administration, counted on a popular uprising that never came.
Preliminary air strikes on 15 April by B-26 bombers disguised as Cuban aircraft failed to destroy Castro's air force, and Kennedy cancelled a follow up strike to hide U.S. involvement.
The exiles came under heavy fire on the beaches, Cuban planes sank their supply ships, and Castro rushed some 20,000 troops to the area. Within about three days the brigade was crushed, with more than 100 killed and roughly 1,200 captured. The debacle strengthened Castro, who soon proclaimed the socialist character of the revolution and drew closer to the Soviet Union.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
04004171961
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Prime Minister Fidel Castro survived the invasion and used it to consolidate his rule and align Cuba with the Soviet Union.
Baseline coding: Coup attempt failed to remove the incumbent. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
Wikipedia
Times of India
Los Angeles Times
New York Times
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →