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…
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. ~/
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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.