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…
employed in the exercises. 16/*
The President of Guatemala was interested in
doing more than simply providing a cover story for
the Agency activities. Throughout the period prior
to the invasion and even through the course of
the invasion he or his chief spokesman, Roberto
Alejos, made it quite clear on numerous occasions
that they would be willing, indeed were anxious, to
see Guatemalan Army and Air Force personnel actively
participate ln the operations against Castro's Cuba.
As early as September 1960 when the first resupply
overflight was being planned, Alejos and the Defense
Minister of Guatemala were in serious discussion
with Carl Jenkins, the COB of the ground training
base, JMTRAV, about the possibility of using some
Guatemalan personnel as either PDO's or assigning
a counterpart Guatemalan Air Force crew to the C-54
* It is possible that this training was made possi-
ble, in part at least, by the 5,000 pounds of small
arms and perhaps as much as 100,000 pounds of machine
guns,· ammunition, and rockets that CIA provided to
the GOG at this time. 17/
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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.