The CIA's Top Secret Bay of Pigs Mission: Declassified

It started like any other sunny Monday morning on 17th April 1961, clear skies in all directions. A lone airplane limped into view on the horizon, trailing smoke. It radioed in a mayday and the emergency staff snapped to well-practiced attention. They had no idea that the plane was a lie, that its pilot was an imposter or that the next two days would change the course of American history forever.

Arrival

Miami international airport was just waking up to business as usual, the night shift passing over to the groggy morning coffee conversations of the day shift. If the plane caught them by surprise, they didn’t show it. The aircraft was brought in on an emergency runway with practiced ease and the wheels of procedure and processing swung lazily into motion.

The inspectors walking out on to the tarmac were working on limited information, something about a plane from Cuba looking to defect from the Communist State over to the USA for all the joys of Capitalism. As they got closer to the craft, however, they began to realise that this wasn’t quite as simple as the usual defection story. The craft wasn’t a civilian one for a start, it bore the insignia and markings of the Cuban FAR (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias) and was covered in a mixture of oil, dirt and bullet holes.

The story the pilot told was incredible. According to him he had just turned rebel against the Cuban government and, along with two of his comrades had blazed his way through several planes in the Communist aerodromes on the island before making a daring escape. His story would have made for a great movie, if there were any truth to it. In reality, the man the authorities were speaking to was from Cuba originally but had been living and working in the USA after fleeing the country when Castro had taken control. At the time they spoke to him, he was in the employ of the CIA.