The recent death of Fidel Castro has once again placed Cuba in the spotlight as the world remembers the fiery dictator who sparred with 11 US Presidents, and questions are what lies next for his country.
One of the most infamous incidents between the US and Cuba involved the ill-fated invasion of Cuba's Bay of Pigs in 1961. Jim Rasenberger writes about this tense time in his book "The Brilliant Disaster: JFK, Castro and America's Doomed Invasion of Cuba's Bay of Pigs. It's now out in paperback.
In the book, he details how a US-backed invasion of Cuba was launched by a CIA-trained Cuban exiles. The plan was to start an uprising that would result in the overthrow of communist dictator, Fidel Castro. But the invasion was marred by miscalculations and setbacks, and ended up being arguably the biggest military blunder in American history.
The failed operation was an embarrassment to president John F. Kennedy, only three months into his term in office, as well as to the CIA. The Cuban exiles were left without air support after launching the attack and many were captured or imprisoned. Overall 114 of the 1,400 troops on the American side perished.
Jim Rasenberger is the author of three books and is a contributor to many major publications, he was interviewed on Reader's Corner in 2012.
