Newspaper Page Text
Griffin Daily News
Castro still bragging about Bay of Pigs victory
By THEODORE A. EDIGER
Copley News Service
MIAMI — Just a decade ago,
a Cuban exile fighting force of
1,200, recruited, trained and
armed by the U.S. government,
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8
Thursday, May 20, 1971
invaded Cuba seeking to
overthrow Fidel Castro. It was
the celebrated Bay of Pigs
fiasco. Castro troops crushed
the invaders within three days.
Today the United States, its
world prestige shaken by the
incident, still smarts from
wounds of inaction. The United
States sent the refugees into
Castro's military might, then
forsook them, failing to provide
promised air support, and left
them to their doom.
Castro still boasts how his
tiny nation so easily smashed
the mighty United States. He
remains on firmer ground at
home and more respected
abroad as a result of that April,
1961, victory.
No further all-out effort to
overthrow him appears in
sight. The once active anti-
Castro underground, broken up
with the invaders’ rout, has
never fully regrouped.
The Communist world un-
doubtedly has been em
boldened. The Bay of Pigs set
the stage for subsequent Soviet
advances, in this hemisphere,
at least.
Meanwhile, survivors wait,
hope, reminisce and earn a
living at sundry tasks in Miami
and other cities.
Veterans of the invasion
force say their morale was high
when in the predawn of April
17, 1961, they disembarked on
Giron Beach off the Bay of
Pigs, 100 miles southeast of
Havana. How could they miss?
The United States supported
them.
The plan was for an exile
armada of 25 planes to destroy
Castro’s air force craft on the
ground before the invasion.
Brigade 2506, as the incursion
force was called, would then
land, seize the Giron airfield
and, with air cover, block the
beachhead off from Havana. A
provisional government would
be flown in. The invaders would
broadcast to people in Cuba
and to Latin American
governments asking them to
join their cause.
The plan seemed foolproof.
The first air mission swooped
over Cuba two days before the
landing, as scheduled. But
President John Kennedy,
fearful that a bigger squadron
might tip off U.S. involvement
— the pilots were supposed to
be “defectors” from Castro —
issued an order limiting the
strike force to eight planes.
This semisquadron destroyed
eight Castro planes, half
Cuba’s air force. Three
“freedom fighter” planes were
lost.
Cuban Foreign Minister Raul
Roa told the United Nations
that the United States did the
bombing, and pretty well
proved it.
President Kennedy canceled
the second strike, scheduled for
a day before the landing. Then,
just as the invasion fleet of five
small freighters escorted by
U.S. destroyers approached
the Bay of Pigs, the third strike
was scratched by White House
order. It was to have coincided
with the landing.
Brigade 2506 won the first
battle. It seized the Giron
airstrip, then waited for its
bombers. They never arrived.
Castro's planes roared in.
Rockets sank two invasion
freighters. One carried the
broadcasting equipment and
supplies for a week’s fighting.
Men swan ashore without
arms. The other three
freighters retreated.
Fighting was over by
nightfall April 19. The men
were without ammunition, food
and water, and exhausted.
Nearly 100 were killed. The rest
were captured or hid in
swamps where Castro’s men
plunked them out later. The
United States did not abandon
them completely.
Twenty months later, 1,113
Bay of Pigs prisoners were
ransomed with $3 million worth
of medicines, baby food and
other commodities donated by
Americans with government
approval.
President Kennedy
welcomed the freed prisoners
and other exiles in Miami’s
Orange Bowl in December,
1961. Standing on a makeshift
platform on the 50-yard line,
the president was proffered a
Cuban flag. He told the huge
gathering: “I can assure you
that this flag will be returned to
this brigade in a free Havana."
Still, a year and half later,
Kennedy ended an eyeball-to
eyeball confrontation with the
Soviet Union by pledging that
Castro’s realm would not be
invaded if strategic missiles
were removed from Cuba.
PHONEY MILLIONS
LOS ANGELES (UPI)-A
total of $7 million in bogus
money has been confiscated in
the Los Angeles area since Dec.
1 and 180 persons have been
arrested, secret service agents
reported Wednesday.
Counterfeiting activity in the
Los Angeles area, the agents
said, was more than in New
York City and Chicago com
bined.
Grave Is Shrine
John Paul Jones died a
broken man in 1792, was
buried in an unidentified
French grave and a century
later his remains were re
turned by an escort of U.S.
warships to Annapolis,
where his grave is a national
shrine, according to Encyclo
paedia Britannica.
BARBS
By PHIL PASTORET
At the way prices are go
ing up, maybe the caution
ary wording on cigarette
packages should have the
word “wealth” substituted
for “health.”
♦ ® ®
One secret most of us
never learn is the one of
success.
* » «
So far as our nonfavorite
bartender is concerned,
“spring” time never comes
to his pub.
♦ ♦ ♦
Some people spend
most of their time telling
what they don’t know.