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…
As an appropriate final note to indicate the
dominant role of the Agency in determining US foreign
policy vis-a-vis Nicaragua, a cable of 15 April 1961
from Managua to Headquarters reads;oas follows:
Napoli requests know, if Ambassador
Brown, who ETA Managua 16 April, briefed
on JMATE/JMTIDE. If not, does Headquarters
authorize briefing if Ambassador so requests. 70/ 0
This was a strange question to have to be asked of Wash-
ington at this particular time. Even stranger, perhaps,
is the fact that the Department of State was scheduling
a new Ambassador to arrive at the time that the planned
attack on Cuba
being assigned
out of the country to which he was
was about to kick off. Whether this
was an indication of relative indifference on the part
of the Department or a sign of supreme confidence in
the ability of its personnel to cope is left to the
reader's jUdgment.
H. Postscript on Nicaragua
Two interesting postscripts to the story of the
Agency's involvement in Nicaraguan foreign policy con-
cern the period following the collapse of the invasion.
In May 1961, Lou Napoli was informed by former Ambassador
- 143 -

Not linked to a story yet.

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.