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…
personnel for training the invasion force. Although
not without difficulty, small unit cadres were trained
at Fort Randolph in the Panama Canal Zone for infiltra-
tion, the establishment of commo activities, and sabotage.
With the move to Guatemala, it was obvious that addi-
tional trainers would be required; and as a result,
Chief JMATE worked very closely with Soviet Division,
particularly the Domestic Operations Base, to obtain
the services of the so-called "unofficial Americans"
who had been recruited by SB under the AEDEPOT program
to serve as trainers for the Cuban Brigade. Formal
arrangements between the Soviet Division and JMATE
were concluded in early September 1960. 62/ Despite
the fact that the AEDEPOT program had been initiated
____________________ 1 a total of 21
agents and five staff personnel joined the JMATE pro-
ject. The actual recruiting was run through the FRD
recruitment program headed by Juan Paula Argeo. The
WH representatives were introduced as US Government
officials sympathetic to the cause of the anti-Castro
Cubans. It was pointed out, however, that the US

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.