Official History of the Bay of Pigs Operation- Volume 2- Part 1

see the Secretary in the morning. So
here again, you have Ydigoras levying a
request on an Agency representative
locally, under circumstances and with a
time schedule that, as it turned out,
made effective reference to the State
Department just impossible. The State
Department was not equipped to decide
something like that within an hour....
r know that r sent a cable to Egan saying
"Yes" on my responsibility; and my reasons
for doing that -~ very definitely at the
time -- were that r didn't think that de-
cision ought to be left to Egan. 41/
There seems to have been some confusion as to
what actually happened following the request which
Mr. Bissell approved. The initial cable reporting
the action stated simply that:
Upon Ydigoras's instr~~tions through
Alejos, aircraft and troops launched on
schedule. However, when planes at Puerto
Barrios, order countermanded as it dis-
covered majority rebels had evacuated base
during night. All aircraft and TRAV
troops returned JMADD. 42/
On 17 November however, in an after action report it
was stated:
MADD B-26's commenced airs trike against
Puerto Barrios air base at 0607 hours local,
strafing area with rockets and .50 cal.
As first C-46 started to land, B-26's strafed
in front landing C-46. C-46 made successful
-landing encountering sporadic small arms
fire. Cuban trainees aboard aircraft re-
turned fire through ports during landing.
Recall order given before C-46 completed
landing. Therefore, pilot did 180 degree
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