April 17 1961 – The Bay of Pigs Invasion Begins
Throughout the Cold War, a sharply-divided Europe always seemed the likeliest place for a full-scale conflict. During the late 1950s and early 1960s though, the Americas saw a rapid increase in pro-Communist sentiment — and most troubling for officials in the United States — nowhere more than in Cuba, just 90 miles from the American coast. Tension only got worse on April 17, 1961, when a group of rebels funded by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) led the Bay of Pigs Invasion. For the Republic of Cuba, the first half of the 20th century was dominated by the United States. Following American intervention on the island during the Spanish-American War in 1898, the next five decades were defined by copious investment from the US and Canada. Naturally, the Cuban government became friendly with its trading partners, at times receiving financial and military support to stabilize democracy. All that changed in March 1952, when General Fulgencio Batista pushed Carlos Prio Socarras out of office through a military coup. The former President of Cuba from the Democratic Socialist Party between 1940 and 1944, Batista immediately installed himself as the head of a new “disciplined democracy.”