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…
Oral agreements notwithstanding, there is evi-
dence that Alejos tried to take advantage of the sit-
uation on a number of occasions. As early as August
1960, for example, Alejos's brother-in-law, an engineer,
was proposed for a contract of $1,000 per month for
work related to the development of the JMTRAV training
site; and in January 1961, or shortly prior to January;
Alejos had proposed that Agency transport aircraft
flying between Guatemala and Florida be used to carry
,shrimp to the United States. The numerous difficulties
attendant upon such an operation were sufficient to
cool this proposal, but far more pressure was exerted
by Alejos during the period shortly before the invasion
in an attempt to get the Agency to help him sell his
coffee crop -- presumably because his participation
in project activities had forced him to miss numerous,
opportunities to obtain the best price for his coffee.
The Agency found an export agent in the US for Alejos,
but the coffee sales were to be within the Guatemalan
quota. 34/*
* How such relationships would be regarded in light
of the investigative morality of the mid-1970's, is
a moot point. At a time that the Bay of Pigs was
being planned, the activities which now might seem
(footnote continued on following page)
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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.