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…
Whelan that Somoza, through Ambassador Sevilla-Sacasa,
expressed the opinion that Napoli had not kept him
properly informed regarding the military activities at
the time of the invasion. In the memorandum of his
conversation with Whelan, Napoli pointed out that this
undoubtedly was true because he, himself, had not been
informed immediately of the developing military situa-
tion; and, in fact, it was through Captain Quintana of
the Nicaraguan Guardia Nacional at TIDE that he first
learned that the beach at Playa Giron was being aban-
doned.
Moreover, Napoli pointed out that the Agency had
violated its own commitment to Somoza that none of the
Brigade wounded would be brought back into the TIDE
area -- a commitment that Napoli had made to President
Somoza after receiving prior Headquarters guidance.
Further, the Agency failed to meet the date that it had
agreed to for removing those wounded. In addition
some of the vessels returning to TIDE/from Cuba had
wounded aboard, but through Napoli's efforts, apparently,
they were not off-loaded. Somoza apparently bore no
ill will toward Napoli, for upon the latter's departure,.

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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.