In April 1961, under authorization by President John F. Kennedy, Brigade 2506 took part in the infamous Bay of Pigs invasion. Their mission, financed and coordinated by Washington, was to depose dictator Fidel Castro, install a new, Western-friendly regime in Havana, and, ultimately, deal a crushing blow to America’s Cold War adversaries — namely, the Soviet Union, with which Castro was closely aligned ... It did not go as planned.