Artifact Details
Tensions between the U.S. and the Soviets rose after the Bay of Pigs, leading to the Cuban Missile Crisis the following year.
On 17 April 1961, some 1,500 “Brigade 2506” Cuban fighters, trained and equipped by CIA, waded ashore at a place in Cuba called the Bay of Pigs. It was an ill-fated attempt to depose the regime of Fidel Castro. For reasons that are still debated, the operation was a catastrophic failure. Designed for Brigade 2506, the patches never saw combat.