Editing History of Cuba (section)

===Golden exile and Bay of Pigs===
[[File:Attack near Playa Giron. April 19, 1961. - panoramio.jpg|thumb|right|Cuban troops advancing on [[Brigade 2506]] invaders at the Bay of Pigs.]]
{{Main|Golden exile|Bay of Pigs Invasion}}
In the 1961 [[New Year's Day]] parade, the Cuban administration exhibited [[List of tanks of the Soviet Union|Soviet tanks]] and other weapons.<ref name="Staten-Cuba">{{Cite book|title=The history of Cuba|author=Clifford L. Staten}}</ref> Cuban officers began to receive extended military training in the Soviet Union, becoming proficient in the use of advanced Soviet weapons systems.<ref>{{cite web |title=Cuban Military Culture |url=https://gordoninstitute.fiu.edu/policy-innovation/military-culture-series/frank-mora-brian-fonseca-and-brian-latell-2016-cuban-military-culture.pdf |access-date=11 June 2020 |archive-date=11 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111215051/https://gordoninstitute.fiu.edu/policy-innovation/military-culture-series/frank-mora-brian-fonseca-and-brian-latell-2016-cuban-military-culture.pdf |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Castro's policies in Cuba slowly led hundreds of thousands of upper- and middle-class Cubans to flee to the United States and other countries. By 1961, thousands of Cubans had fled for the United States. On 22 March of that year, an exile council was formed.<ref name="Bethell-Cuba"/> The council planned to defeat the Cuban regime and form a provisional government with [[José Miró Cardona]], a noted leader in the civil opposition against Batista, to serve as temporary president.

In April 1961, less than four months into the Kennedy administration, the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA) executed a plan that had been developed under the Eisenhower administration. This military campaign to topple Cuba's revolutionary government is now known as the Bay of Pigs Invasion (or ''La Batalla de Girón'' in Cuba).<ref name="Chomsky 2003"/><ref name="mtholyoke.edu">US Department of State, ''Foreign Relations of the United States 1961–1963'', Vol. X Cuba, 1961–1962, Washington, D.C. [http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/cuba/mongoose.htm] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131101172705/https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/cuba/mongoose.htm|date=1 November 2013}})</ref> The aim of the invasion was to empower existing opposition militant groups to "overthrow the Communist regime" and establish "a new government with which the United States can live in peace."<ref name="mtholyoke.edu"/> The invasion was carried out by a CIA-sponsored paramilitary group of over 1,400 Cuban exiles called [[Brigade 2506]]. Arriving in Cuba by boat from [[Guatemala]] on 15 April, the brigade initially overwhelmed Cuba's counter-offensive. But by 20 April, the brigade surrendered and was publicly interrogated before being sent back to the US. The invasion helped further build popular support for the new Cuban government.<ref>Angelo Trento. ''Castro and Cuba : From the revolution to the present''. Arris books. 2005.</ref> The Kennedy administration thereafter began [[Cuban Project|Operation Mongoose]], a covert CIA campaign of sabotage against Cuba, including the arming of militant groups, sabotage of Cuban infrastructure, and plots to assassinate Castro.<ref>Domínguez, Jorge I. "The @#$%& Missile Crisis (Or, What was 'Cuban' about US Decisions during the Cuban Missile Crisis". ''Diplomatic History: The Journal of the Society for Historians of Foreign Relations'', Vol. 24, No. 2, (Spring 2000): 305–315.)</ref><ref>Jack Anderson (18 January 1971). "6 Attempts to Kill Castro Laid to CIA". ''The Washington Post''</ref> All this reinforced Castro's distrust of the US.