Documents / FOIA release
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.
August TOP~ET of the air operations, it had been decided, particu- larly since it had been favored by the President of Guatemala, that the Retalhuleu airstrip, a graded sod-strip of approximately 4,300' in length, lying in the NW corner of Guatemala, roughly 40 km from the Pacific coast and 50 km from the Mexican border, would be expanded to 5,000'xlOO' with a crushed stone and asphalt surface. Suitable hanger type structures and other necessary airfield facilities would be in- stalled at that site for the air training base. 13/ Although the details are given in another history, a word should be said here about the highly commendable performance of one of the Agency's engineers from th~ Office of Logistics, I r who on 3 1960 was assigned to the Retalhuleu project as the resident engineer arld who on 13 September saw President Ydigoras officially ina~gurate the opening o~ the air- strip with the landing of some DC-3's, a C-46, and a couple of Aero Commanders. By 30 September all con- struction was completed including the extension of the airstrip to 5,000' and the base was ready for the inau- guration of training activities. 14/* * Despite some severe criticism from the A/DDP/A, C. Tracy Barnes, about cost overruns, inefficient (fa;~:;~~:nued on following page) /
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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.