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…
TOplRET
By mid October 1960, the internal situation in
Guatemala had worsened, and Ydigoras was pressing
hard on Washington for loans and grants-in-aid to
assist him in maintaining control. The GOG faced a
financial crisis -- salaries had been cut, people
were unemployed, and the Leftists were making strong
inroads in the political life of the country. A
general strike had been called, and this posed a
possible threat to the overthrow of the Ydigoras
government. "Reports of varying reliability" sug-
gested that Castro might be supplying funds to and
training cadres of anti-Ydigoras groups in Guatemala
in an attempt both to oust Ydigoras and, consequently,
put an end to Guatemalan support for the Cuban train-
ing program. The situation had become so serious
that by the end of October and the early part of
November JMADD had completed preparations for a quick
evacuation of all the aircraft and all station personnel
seige on 19 July 1960. Carl Jenkins, assigned to
WH/4/PM, was providing operational guidance to c==J
prior.to assuming his job as COB TRAV. In September
1960, Ernest W. Sparks was named Chief, JMATE activities
in Guatemala and thus became the adviser to I I
I Ion ops plans. 37a/
- 31 -

Not linked to a story yet.

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.