Of Following 51,000

approximately the Cuban

militiamen,Revolution
an estimatedon 2,200
January were
1,
killed in the
1959,
fighting.
where However,
Fidel Castro
115 of
the 1,500 assumed
Cuban invasion
power force
in Cuba,
were
killed andthe1,189United
were captured.
States were The
failure at Cuba
threatened
strengthenedwith Castro’s
the
hold on presence
his people,of anda deeply new
embarrassedcommunisttheregime Kennedy
close to
The Bay of Pigs Invasion administration.
the States. Hoping to quickly
April 15 - April 19, 1961 and decisively destroy the
new government before any
harm to the United States
could be done, the United
States sent about 1,500
--Cuban
Andrew exiles Galloway
trained by the
CIA as an invasion force to
Cuba. The force, known as
Brigade 2506, landed in the
Bay of Pigs on April 17,
1961.

Previous air raids by United States forces failed to accomplish their

aim of knocking out Cuban air power in order to give Brigade 2506
superiority of the skies. Helpless, the Cuban exiles were doomed.