Bay of Pigs Invasion
The Bay of Pigs plan (Operation Zapata)
Washington D.C., U.S.
On 4 April 1961, President Kennedy then approved the Bay of Pigs plan (also known as Operation Zapata), because it had a sufficiently long airfield, it was farther away from large groups of civilians than the Trinidad plan, and it was less "noisy" militarily, which would make denial of direct US involvement more plausible. The invasion landing area was changed to beaches bordering the Bahía de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs) in Las Villas Province.