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…
payments, arms traffic, illegal Cuban
Embassy participation, etc. and not give
false impression Cuban revolution "catch-
ing on" in popularity other WH countries.
Also use any pertinent news peg as occa-
sion mention continued shipments and train-
ing in use Soviet bloc arms including
artillery by Castro militia. 54/
By 16 November 1960, the revolt for all practical
purposes had come to an end. At that time there were
pockets of resistance reported in the area between
Puerto Barrios and Gualan, but no evidence had been
found which would support charges of Cuban involvement.
Before the conclusion of the fighting, however, Presi-
dent Ydigoras did request -- and received -- two of
the JMADD B-26's because the Guatemalan Air Force
B-26's had been shot up to the point where they were
in no condition to fly additional combat missions. As
a result of the unsettled situation in Guatemala, re-
cruitment of PM ground trainees for JMTRAV was suspended
until further notice, the B-26's were recalled to the
JMADD air base, and, for the moment, all Air National
Guard (ANG) and military assignees to ~ffiDD were con-
fined to the base.* During the course of the revolt
* It was reported to Headquarters that on the mOLning
of 15 Nov 60, four armorers from MADD. had been briefly
detained by an "officer group" at the Guatemala City
airfield. The detainees probably were USAF military
assignees.
-~
TOP)FCRET

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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.