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. 21 Alejos's position from the Cubans -- his role would be as a private Guatemalan citizen, cooperating…
  • p. 23 …Cover, Security and Latin Pride A high degree of cooperation between the President of Guatemala and…
  • p. 39 …Agency training programs were developed with the full and complete cooperation of the President of Guatemala…
  • p. 48 …This witness recalled Headquarter's instructions to cooperate with Alejos and also the authorization for Seigrist…
  • p. 84 …was marked by a spirit of close cooperation between the Government of Guatemala and the Agency…
  • p. 85 …it was reported that there was close cooperation be- tween~and Roberto Alejos with regard to…
  • p. 91 …Once again Ydigoras lectured the Cuban political leaders about the need for unity and cooperation with…
  • p. 115 …office with the rest of State, the cooperation of which we need. It is incumbent upon…
  • p. 116 …American country, receiving his full support and cooperation. Somoza volunteered to foot the cost of the…
  • p. 149 …ever, is that Somoza gave his full cooperation to the Agency effort to mount the operation…
  • p. 153 …Somoza himself was characterized as continuing to be quite cooperative with the Agency representatives but fearful…
threatened for assistance given the Brigade by Nicaragua
should the invasion of Cuba take place. 57/
As the date for the invasion approached and
with the approval of Jake Esterline and C. Tracy Barnes
Lou Napoli was reassigned (27 March 1961) to Managua
on TDY to maintain personal contact with both President
and General Somoza on the upcoming operation insofar
as it might affect the Nicaraguan government; and like
his predecessor, Rip Robertson, Napoli was to confine
his activities to Managua and avoid JMTIDE. Napoli
expected to do a certain amount of hand-holding on the
matter of the loans and make reassuring noises without
any firm commitments; and, similarly, he hoped to be
able to assure the Nicaraguan government that it would
receive support from the US should their Latin American
neighbors take umbrage at Somoza's anti-Castro posture.
Probably the most significant duty he was to undertake
upon his return to Nicaragua was to brief Somoza on
the upcoming military operation without, of course,
revealing the strike date -- in fact, the instruction
indicated that Napoli himself would not know the exact
date. ~/
TOP

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About this file

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.