I have had the somber task of writing my father’s obituary this week (see here), and one of the most surprising and awe-inspiring biographical facts I found as I was digging into the details of my father’s life was that he was a veteran of the heroic Brigada de Asalto 2506, which fought to liberate Cuba in April of 1961! (Here is the brigade’s full membership list; see also here.)

Alas, my father never revealed this part of his early life to me; all I know (so far) is that he joined the Brigade before he met my mother, he was only 18 when he enlisted, was assigned serial number #4133, and was attached to the last of the military units to be formed for the ill-fated invasion, the 6th Battalion under the command of Francisco Montiel Rivera.

If only my father were still alive, for I have so many questions I want to ask him! In the meantime, I have already checked out a few books and downloaded some scholarly articles on the legendary Cuban Brigade and the Bay of Pigs invasion to see if I can uncover any additional details, especially about the 6th Batallion. My preliminary reading list (in alphabetical order, by author) appears below:

BOOKS:

Haynes Johnson, The Bay of Pigs: the leaders’ story of Brigade 2506 (Norton & Norton, 1964), especially 103-202.

Grayston Lynch, Decision for disaster: betrayal at the Bay of Pigs (Potomac Books, 2000).

Victor Andres Triay, Bay of Pigs: an oral history of Brigade 2506 (University Press of Florida, 2001).

Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., Journals: 1952-2000 (Penguin, 2006), especially pp. 107-119.

Lucien S. Vandenbroucke, Perilous options: special operations as an instrument of U.S. foreign policy (Oxford University Press, 1993), especially pp. 19-50.

Peter Wyden, Bay of Pigs: the untold story (Simon & Schuster, 1979), especially pp. 139-288.

SCHOLARLY ARTICLES:

Brian E. Campbell, “Brigade 2506: young, idealistic, and anti-Castro“, Senior Honors Thesis (The Ohio State University, 2011).

Michael Dunne, “Perfect failure: the USA, Cuba, and the Bay of Pigs, 1961“, Political Quarterly, Vol. 82, No. 3 (Jul., 2011), pp. 448-458.

Piero Gleijeses, “Ships in the night: the CIA, the White House, and the Bay of Pigs”, Journal of Latin American Studies, Vol. 27, No. 1 (Feb., 1995), pp. 1-42.

Lyman B. Kirkpatrick, Jr., “Paramilitary case study: the Bay of Pigs“, Naval War College Review, Vol. 25, No. 2 (Nov./Dec., 1972), pp. 32-42.

Donald L. Moore, “The Bay of Pigs: an analysis“, Naval War College Review, Vol. 19, No. 3 (Nov., 1966), pp. 1-35.

Lucien S. Vandenbroucke, “Anatomy of a failure: the decision to land at the Bay of Pigs“, Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 99, No. 3 (Autumn, 1984), pp. 471-491.

OTHER/ONLINE:

The George Washingtion University, “The Bay of Pigs: 40 years after: chronology“, The National Security Archive (undated), https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/bayofpigs/chron.html.

Wikipedia, “La invasión de la bahía de Cochinos“, Wikipedia: La Enciclopedia Libre (undated), https://archive.ph/eLC7B.