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

The situation was complicated by the fact that
Washington was sitting on its hands waiting for a
policy decision to implement the operational phase of
JMTIDE; and this was further complicated by the ques-
tion of the utilization of US military personnel at
the Nicaragua base. As pointed out in the discussion
of the Agency's relationships with the Government of
Guatemala,* Jake Esterline had been forced to negotiate
an agreement which, in effect, was a status of Forces
Agreement with the Government of Guatemala before
permission was granted for the use of us Army Special
Forces personnel at the ground training base, JMTRAV.
When it was time to consider the initiation of opera-
tions at Puerto Cabezas, the question of utilization
of us personnel in a foreign area again came up.
In early March 1961, a memorandum to the DDP
from the Assistant Director for Operations, Office of
Special Operations, Department of Defense, stated in
part:
The services and the Joint Staff have
all reaffirmed that the Department of De-
fense policy established for Guatemala
must apply to Nicaragua in the same manner.
This subject has been discussed with the
* See Part I of this volume, pp. 57 ff.
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