History of Cubana de Aviación CIA plan to execute sabotage, assassinations, and to attack and invade Cuba with the objective of overthrowing its revolutionary government. This broad strategy of aggression and sabotage culminated in the failed, CIA-planned and executed April 1961 invasion of Cuba at Playa Girón (also known as the Bay of Pigs). When an aerial bombardment of several Cuban airports by CIA-piloted and owned U.S. B-26 bombers (using fake Cuban air force livery to confound defenders) occurred on 15 April 1961, Cubana was forced to discontinue all its operations. One of Cubana's Douglas DC-3 aircraft, registered CU-T138, that was parked at Santiago de
CIA activities in Afghanistan by Khalq rival Hafizullah Amin in September. Amin was considered a "brutal psychopath" by foreign observers; even the Soviets were alarmed by the brutality of the Afghan communists, and suspected Amin of being an agent of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), although that was not the case. By December, Amin's government had lost control of much of the country, prompting the Soviet Union to invade Afghanistan, execute Amin, and install Parcham leader Babrak Karmal as president. Carter was surprised by the invasion, as the consensus of the U.S. intelligence community during 1978 and 1979—reiterated as late as September 29,