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Bay of Pigs

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Bay of Pigs: An Oral History of Brigade 2506 by Victor A. Triay

This important new work about the Bay of Pigs was written by Dr. Triay, a prominent Cuba scholar from Miami, Florida and living in Middletown, Connecticut. Dr. Triay's work captures the poignancy of the interviews with the individuals whose personal stories were the primary sources of Triay's research. As with his previous work, Fleeing Castro: Operation Pedro Pan and the Cuban Children's Program (University Press of Florida November 1998), Bay of Pigs incorporates Triay's trademark style of weaving historical context with personal stories.

In the book, Dr. Triay relates the stories of several members of Brigade 2506, the volunteers who united in exile to form the American-trained invasion force that went into Cuba in April 1961, after it had become clear that Castro would not live up to his promise to restore democracy in Cuba. Their stories reveal the men's conviction and the democratic ideals for which they fought. In addition, the book includes stories from the CIA's top man at the invasion, as well as the touching personal histories of some of the Brigade members' loved ones.

The stories are told from the point of view of the individuals interviewed by Dr. Triay, who introduces each chapter with an excellent synopsis of the relevant historical context. While the book is sure to gain a tremendous amount of notoriety among Cuba scholars as the first work of its kind, this fast-paced, hard-hitting, and absorbing book is a "must have" for anyone interested in the history of the Bay of Pigs invasion and the uncommon warriors who made up Brigade 2506.

The book traces the story of the volunteers who made up the Brigade, beginning with some Brigade members' early anti-Castro activities and their recruitment into the Brigade. This is followed by a section on their training in Retalhuleu and Base Trax in Guatemala and their journey across the Caribbean to the invasion site. Capturing the invasion's drama in an almost breathtaking manner, Triay relates the landings (by air and by sea), advancements, and major engagements of the Brigade.

Throughout the book, the reader never loses sight of the Brigade's courage, tenacity and determination, despite having been abandoned by their American allies. Also told in riveting detail are the stories of the defeated Brigade's retreat into the swamps, their capture by Castro forces, their wretched twenty-month imprisonment, and their ultimate joyous release. Perhaps the book's greatest surprise is an entire chapter dedicated to the women the Brigade members left behind.

Triay's book is truly an outstanding piece of Cuban history.

It's about time someone got this story right. These stories completely shatter the myths created by Castro's propaganda machine and his U.S. boot-licks over the years. Far from being Batistianos, the men of Brigada 2506 were overwhelmingly pro-democratic Cuban patriots, many of them former revolutionaries, who were exercising the only choice Castro had left them. What these men did was perhaps the purest and noblest act of self-sacrifice on behalf of human liberty in the Twentieth Century history of the Western Hemisphere. Thank God someone thought to put these stories down for the record before it was too late. In the future, when the people of Cuba are free to inquire into their history, they will be able to discover who the real Cuban patriots were.

We are doomed to repeat history, this is why one must learn.... If we had aircover it would have helped. but we were betrayed.

Unfortunately, this book breaks little new ground, and tends to glamorize the participants in the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion of Castro's Cuba.