In 1968, Cuban guerrillas led by Fidel Castro, who had been overthrown as Cuba's president with U.S. military assistance in April 1961, begin the so-called 'Moncada Offensive.' Named after a famous 1953 battle in the Cuban revolution which had brought Castro to power six years later, the attack, targeting Havana, is a military failure for the rebels but a huge propaganda success, vividly underscoring the inability of the restored Batista regime and its U.S. patrons to crush the Castroites.