Bay of Pigs is the first complete, detailed, authentic account of one of the most dramatic (and traumatic) events in American history. Based on eyewitness accounts (Fidel Castro was interviewed by the author for over six hours), Bay of Pigs brilliantly re-creates the climactic moment in the American attempt to overthrow Castro. In a compelling and sweeping work of history that rivals such great classics as The Longest Day and The Guns of August, Peter Wyden tells the whole story, from the earliest plans and discus- sions in the most secret sections of the CIA, tothe mounting of an immense covert military opera- tion and the day-to-day, hour-by-hour agony of the President and his advisers as it gradually dawns upon them that the landings are going to fail ignominiously. Here, for the first time, is the true record of the conversations, decisions, individual acts of hero- ism, mistakes and tragic misunderstandings that led to one of the most notorious and public failures of American power. Peter Wyden has had access to many hitherto secret documents and has interviewed the major participants, the secret planners, the CIA organizers, the civilians and the combatants on both sides, including Cuban exiles, American military commanders and pilots, and the highest advisers to the President. He has uncovered and interviewed eyewitnesses whose identities were kept secret for a generation, and they have revealed to him what they knew, what they saw, what they did. The result is a major document, a work of historythat not only records an event until now mostly the subject of rumor, but also establishes, among other things, that American military participation in the operation was far greater than has been supposed (or than President Kennedy had authorized), and that the shelling of a U.S. destroyer off the landing beaches actually came within a hairsbreadth of igniting World War Three.