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…
TOP
explains why he had come to the Agency with this partic-
ular story rather than going to the Department. In
any event, however, Chief, WH/4 ended his memorandum
with the following suggestions:
Action required: Exposure of the Trujillo
offer to the DDP and or other interested
parties and early advice to the Guatemalan
Ambassador with simultaneous notification
to I I of the
answer given.
Recommendation: That acceptance of assist-
ance from Trujillo be given the greatest
scrutiny. In the writer's judgment, ex-
posure of Trujillo's assistance at this
time could well swing increasing support
to the United States in the wrong direc-
tion. No serious consideration should,
therefore, be given to this offer. 911
Except for the story of the retrograde and dis-.
position of the materiel which will be discussed ln
a later volume, this concludes the story of the Agency's
policy I.'elated if not policy making -'-- contacts with
the Government of Guatemala during the course of
Project JMATE. Agency representatives rather than
Department of State personnel dealt directly with the
President of Guatemala and his closest associates over
actions·which involved relationships with the United
States Government and bore heavily on the formulation
TOP

Not linked to a story yet.

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.