A bay on the coast of Cuba, site of a failed American attempt to invade Cuba and overthrow Fidel Castro's government in 1961. Cuban exiles, who'd left the country when Castro came to power, served as a front for the CIA so that the U.S. government would not appear to be involved. For reasons which have been argued over since then (possibly including intermittent U.S. support of the whole idea, and greater pro-Castro feeling in Cuba than the U.S. anticipated), Cuba repelled the invasion quite quickly.