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.

Open the PDF at page 18 Original source ↗

“Nevers”12 pages

  • 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…
to respond to a Cuban charge that Guat6mla was being
used as a staging base for a planned invasion of Cuba
and that an OAS inspection was in order. Alejos's
response was that if Cuba would agree to a similar
inspection, Guatemala could be freely visted by the
OAS team. In what would be a continuing irritant
through the course of Project JMATE, Roberto Alejos
also expressed his displeasure with the failures of
the governments of Honduras and EI Salvador to break
relations with Fidel Castro's Cuba. 5/
Whether Esterline actually met with Ambassador
Carlos Alejos at this time is not known, but it appears
possible that such a meeting may have taken place.*
In any event a cable sent from Guatemala City to the
Guatemalan Embassy in Washington, D. C. for Roberto
Alejos dated 7 June 1960, addressed itself in part
to Raul Roa's (Cuba's Foreign Minister) request for
* One of Roberto Alejos's cards with the following
note (translated from Spanish) was found in Chief,
WH/4 records:
Carolio:
The bearer is a good friend, I pray
that you will assist him and make use of
his contacts in the US.

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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.