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. 21 Alejos's position from the Cubans -- his role would be as a private Guatemalan citizen, cooperating…
  • p. 23 …Cover, Security and Latin Pride A high degree of cooperation between the President of Guatemala and…
  • p. 39 …Agency training programs were developed with the full and complete cooperation of the President of Guatemala…
  • p. 48 …This witness recalled Headquarter's instructions to cooperate with Alejos and also the authorization for Seigrist…
  • p. 84 …was marked by a spirit of close cooperation between the Government of Guatemala and the Agency…
  • p. 85 …it was reported that there was close cooperation be- tween~and Roberto Alejos with regard to…
  • p. 91 …Once again Ydigoras lectured the Cuban political leaders about the need for unity and cooperation with…
  • p. 115 …office with the rest of State, the cooperation of which we need. It is incumbent upon…
  • p. 116 …American country, receiving his full support and cooperation. Somoza volunteered to foot the cost of the…
  • p. 149 …ever, is that Somoza gave his full cooperation to the Agency effort to mount the operation…
  • p. 153 …Somoza himself was characterized as continuing to be quite cooperative with the Agency representatives but fearful…
forces in the TRAV and ~~DD areas were called to
service by Ydigoras, and the Agency's C-46 aircraft
out of JMADD participated in transporting these troops
to Guatemala City. There was considerable concern
about the fact that this left only one C-46 at the
Retalhuleu airfield, and this would be insufficient
should an emergency evacuation of the Cuban Brigade
and Agency personnel be required. Headquarters
directed, however, that air transport support continue
to be given to the Ydigoras government. An additional
problem presented almost immediately to JMATE was a
GOG request for large amounts of ordnance to replace
expenditures from the first day's strafing and rocket
attacks by Guatemalan Air Force B-26'son various
. points which had fallen to the rebel forces. The
Guatemalan government requested,. among other ordnance,
components for manufacturing napalm bombs; but this
request was rejected for technical reasons.
Requests from the field went to Headquarters
for the standby of additional B-26's that might be
needed by MADD and for C-54 flights to bring in small
arms and ammunition. The Chief of Air operations at
JMADD, Major Billy B. Campbell, had been to Headquarters

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 above. 179 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.