The Bay of Pigs attempted Invasion was a United States-planned and funded attempted invasion by armed Cuban exiles in southwest Cuba in an attempt to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro in 1961 and marked the climax of anti-Cuban US actions. US-Cuban tensions had grown since Castro had overthrown the regime of General Fulgencio Batista on January 1, 1959. The Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations had made the judgment that Castro's shift toward the Communist Party could not be …showed first 75 words of 1513 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1513 total…to land at a moment's notice. By the time fighting ended on April 21, 91 exiles were dead and the rest were captured. Estimates of Cuban forces killed vary with the source but are generally far higher. The 1,209 captured exiles were quickly tried, a few executed and the rest sentenced to thirty years in prison for treason. After 20 months of negotiation with the United States, Cuba released the exiles in exchange for $53 million in food and medicine.