April 15 - April 19, 1961 The invasion was a US-planned and funded attempted invasion of southwest Cuba by armed Cuban expats. An attempt to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro, the action 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 judged that Castro's shift toward the Communist Party could not be tolerated, and moved to overthrow him. However, the invasion attempt failed miserably and proved to be a major international embarrassment for the Kennedy administration. The resulting fiasco has been studied as an ideal case of "groupthink" decision making. Others view this matter as a policy decision by the Kennedy administration to rid itself of bothersome Cuban expats. -- from Wikipedia