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

question in issue, he pointed out that the Agency's
position was that unless bases in the US could be
obtained, the only acceptable land mass from which
we could fly the B-26's to strike Cuba was Puerto
Cabezas. ~/
In preparing material for Barnes prior to a
5 January 1961 meeting of the Special Group, the Chief
of WH/4, P&P, the hard-nosed, hard-talking Dick Drain
noted an even more significant problem concerning the
situation in Nicaragua. Drain pointed out that the
Special Group in its meetings of 8 and 15 December
had left a number of points hanging, including the
authority to use the airstrip at Puerto Cabezas for
spoiling raids and tactical air support, and in ref-
erence to those two meetings of the Special Group,
Drain wrote:
There was considerable discussion of
the logistics timing involved in the
development of the strip for strikes in
the time framework of 15 Feb - 1 Mar.
Even though the logistics factors alone
would seem to make it necessary for the
Group now to approve this facility for
airstrikes, it was felt that the more
basic question was the very approval of
airstrikes. It was therefore agreed
that this Special Group would be asked