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…
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
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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.