Documents / FOIA release

Official History of the Bay of Pigs Operation- Volume 2- Part 1

Central Intelligence Agency · 179 pages · text from the file's own layer

This is Volume II, Part 1 of the CIA History Staff's Official History of the Bay of Pigs Operation, a Top Secret history dated October 1979 and approved for release in July 2011. It looks at how the Agency took part in shaping US foreign policy toward Guatemala and Nicaragua during the anti-Castro program. It covers dealings with President Ydigoras Fuentes and Roberto Alejos, training sites such as Retalhuleu, cover stories, and negotiations with the Somoza brothers for an air base and port. It contains no UFO material.

  • p. 16 …According to Esterline's report of the meeting "it was never said in so many words…
  • p. 31 …DPD planned to have the SALA representa- tive, who had never been cleared by the Agency…
  • p. 34 …The communications officer whom Alejos had declared to be "under arrest" was never technically arrested and…
  • p. 53 …We never were informed of KIA or wounded counts. We did hear that a couple of…
  • p. 55 …round Guatemala for years and we have never seen Guatemalan pilots fly or shoot with the…
  • p. 64 …emphatically * Delivery of the ~ight B-26's was never made to the Government of Guatemala.
  • p. 75 …Ydigoras said, "that piece of paper will never be exposed," and it hasn't to my…
  • p. 76 …young man I said, "Well, we're never going to get this thing going unless somebody…
  • p. 106 …Venezuela, have made many friendly noises but never once have made a firm offer of real…
  • p. 138 …the project "until Castro's defeat" was never officially made to either President Somoza or President…
  • p. 147 …they were on the ships they would never return to Nicaragua. With reference to the air…
  • p. 153 …68/* * The Agency's relations with Nicaragua also became \ somewhat strained because Miro Cardona was never…
June -- JMATE already had made a commitment to support
it through May --I 1supported the request.
He made the case that this was a security measure be-
cause the press was still trying to prove that the
Cuban Brigade had training bases in Guatemala. ~
furthermore noted that continuing the training of the
Guatemalan Battalion would help to deter the revolution-
ary activities against the Ydigoras Government. 89/
Headquarters approved the request for the addi-
tional support, but one problem did come up -- the
question of whether or not the Special Forces trainers
would be continued through the month of June. The
Special Forces personnel began to get quite edgy be-
cause their commitment had only been through the end
of May, and I Iwas notified that if the
training of the Guatemalan Battalion was completed by
20 May, the Special Forces personnel would then be
returned. Pushing for an earlier exit, the Special
Forces personnel had contended that the Guatemalan
trainees and officers were completely indifferent
toward the ongoing training activity. Headquarters
did say that while the SF trainers would be released

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About this file

FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 179 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.