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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. 14 …an anti-Castro program before Chief JMATE, Jacob D. Esterline, and I Robert K. Davis, met…
  • p. 54 …Batres. !±i/ Jacob D. Esterline, Chief of J~ARC project had some subsequent conversation with the…
  • p. 160 …Memo for Record from Jacob D. Esterline, 20 Jun 60, sub: Negotiations with President Miguel Ydigoras…
  • p. 163 …20 Oct 60. 36. Oral History Interview: Jacob O. Esterline by Jack B. Pfeiffer, 10-11…
  • p. 166 …to the Sec Def, OSO from Jacob D. Esterline, 16 Nov 60, sub: Emergency Evacua~ tion…
  • p. 168 …Memo for Asst~ Sec Def OSO from Jacob D. Esterline, 5 Jan 61, sub: Requirement for…
  • p. 170 …MR from Jacob D. Esterline, 5 Apr 61, sub: Meet- ing with Adolph sic A. Berle…
  • p. 171 …MR from Jacob D. Esterline,S Apr 61, sub: Meeting with Adolph sic A. Berle. 14…
  • p. 173 …Memo for Record from Jacob D. Esterline, 24 Oct 60, sub: Meeting withDCI and Assistant Secretary…
  • p. 174 …Memo for DDP/EMB from Jacob D. Esterline, 6 Dec 60, sub: Four JMARC Problems for…
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a specific offer through the CIA "to groups favorably
regarded by us [of] training facilities in the Peten
area of Guatemala." 2/*
B. Establishing Contacts with Ydigoras and Alejos
It was more than two months following President
Eisenhower's announcement of an anti-Castro program
before Chief JMATE, Jacob D. Esterline, and
I Robert K. Davis, met with representatives of~-~
the GOGi but in the interval between the announcement
and Esterline's first meeting, Davis had already estab~
lished contact with Roberto Alejos -- the principal
representative of President Ydigoras Fuentes in all
* It is interesingto observe that this specific
reference to the use of the Peten area in Guatemala
was reworded for use by the DCI in a memorandum to
the members of the Special Group to read "this train-
ing and holding [of anti-Castro Cubans] would be
conducted in a secure remote area of a friendly
Latin American country." 3/ The Special Group 5412
was a group composed of the Assistant Secretaries
of State and Defense, the DCI, the President's
National Security Advise~ and a CIA Secretariat.
Its principal purpose was to review proposed para-
military and clandestine operations and to provide
guidance on such proposals for the President. Presi-
dent ~isenhower made extensive use of this group,
but President Kennedy largely abandoned it until
late in the period of the Bay of Pigs operation.

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