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. 89 …strictly enforce the Pan American instruments governing terri- torial asylum. Whenever these have been overlooked or…
with this flurry of activity it is interesting
to note that it was more than 24 hours before Head-
quarters got around to giving its concurrence to
the assignment of Lt. Col. Earl as Chief of Base at
JMADD and Lt. Col. Egan as Acting Chief of Base at
JMTRAV. The Chief of the JMADD air operations, Billy
Campbell, who was up at Eglin Air Force Base when
the revolt broke out was off-again-on-again in terms
of his return to Retalhuleu. Before the close of
14 November, Campbell's orders had been changed back
to the original date and time of departure (15 Novem-
ber) and the plan to have him fly ammunition down to
MADD in a B-26 had been scrubbed. Before committing
any DPD aircraft Headquarters carefully inquired if
any "Guat air assets defected or been taken over by
rebels which [sic] can knock down JNCLEAR aircraft.
Are their [sic] any Guat areas to be avoided." 51/
About mid-day on 14 November 1960, Headquarters
informed Guatemala City that there had been a telecon
by vessels of the USN. Coincidental with possible
evacuation were discussions of alternative training
sites for the Cubans, including bases in the Z.I.,
or transfer tol Itraining facili-
ty. SOc/

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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.