On this day in 1961, the Bay of Pigs invasion took place when a force of 1400 Cuban exiles, funded and led by the U.S., landed on the southwest coast of Cuba in a failed attempt at overthrowing the revolutionary Cuban government.
Covertly financed and directed by the U.S. government, the operation took place at the height of the Cold War and its failure led to major shifts in international relations between Cuba, the United States, and the Soviet Union.
The coup attempt came after the Cuban government expropriated property from American capitalists. U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower allocated $13.1 million to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in March 1960 for use against Castro's government. With the aid of Cuban counter-revolutionaries, the CIA proceeded to organize an invasion.
On April 14th, 1961, a squadron of U.S. B-26 bombers camouflaged with Cuban insignias begin a two-day bombing campaign of Cuban airports, destroying a large portion of the Cuban air force.
On the night of April 17th, an invasion force of approximately 1400 Cuban exiles and CIA officers landed on the beach at Playa Girón in the Bay of Pigs. After a few days, the insurgents became overwhelmed by the Cuban army. President Kennedy refused to provide air support for the operation.
The invasion's defeat solidified Castro's role as a national hero and strengthened Cuba-Soviet relations. Several Cuban exiles and two Americans were executed upon capture. Over 1,000 prisoners were exchanged for humanitarian aid from the U.S. government.
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Seeing Alex Garland's Civil War content on my Twitter timeline again and I just want to state my position on that movie. One, I think the director claiming the film is "apolitical" is downright cowardly. The movie ends with a black woman soldier shooting the President, who is clearly supposed to be Donald Trump, in the head. "Oh, the movie is actually condemning both sides for this imaginary violence" I don't think it is. Portions of the movie are condemning explicitly white supremacist violence. But it seemed to me to fetishize the violence of the liberal alliance armed forces (which I remember was a union of Texas and California). The movie revels is the long drawn out sequence of the lib forces taking the White House, delights in the moment the woman shoots the President in the head. It pretends to condemn it "oh, he was an unarmed prisoner of war. He should've stood trial before the nation," but you can tell the movie doesn't really mean it.
Two, I've always felt the movie was a shallow Twitter-brained view of US politics/the lines US society would divide down in the event of a Second American Civil War. And the movie frames itself as this critique of adrenaline junkie jaded War Journalists, but I felt even this was ultimately insincere.
All that said, a pretty good watch. I mean, a shallow movie, but the tension and pacing, the dread and fear throughout the film is really great. And I remember liking the score and stuff too.
i dont know the pacing felt horrible to me. the stakes felt pointless and confusing. it not explaining the politics of the world felt like a detriment to explaining the motivations of the characters in it.