History Declassified

Bay of Pigs - The 72 Hour Collapse

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0:00 | 21:49

In April 1961, around 1,400 Cuban exiles landed at the Bay of Pigs with a clear objective: remove Fidel Castro from power.

Backed by the CIA, the operation was designed to trigger an uprising, establish a foothold, and shift control of the island.

Instead, it collapsed in less than 72 hours.

This episode examines the Bay of Pigs invasion through a different lens — not just what happened, but how it was allowed to happen. From flawed intelligence assumptions and political constraints to execution failures on the ground, this is a case study in how systems break down under pressure.

Because the Bay of Pigs wasn’t undone by a single mistake.

It failed at every level.

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