Bay of Pigs: The 'perfect failure' of Cuba invasion

Fifty years ago, shortly before midnight on 16 April 1961, a group of some 1,500 Cuban exiles trained and financed by the CIA launched an ill-fated invasion of Cuba from the sea in the Bay of Pigs.

The plan was to overthrow Fidel Castro and his revolution.

Instead, it turned into a humiliating defeat which pushed Cuba firmly into the arms of the Soviet Union and has soured US-Cuban relations to this day.

There is a small museum in Playa Giron.

In the forecourt are two of Fidel Castro's tanks, along with a British-built Sea Fury fighter bomber, one of the Cuban air force planes used against the invaders.

The museum's director, Barbara Sierra, says the exhibits are testimony to the "first great defeat of Yankee Imperialism" in the Latin America.

The US, she believes, completely underestimated the degree of support for Fidel Castro's revolution inside Cuba....