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…
affair then became a comedy of near misses. It was
anticipated that Roberto Alejos would be contacted
prior to the meeting with Ydigoras to get the Presi-
dent's opinion on signing the proposed secret agree-
ment. Unfortunately, however, Alejos was arriving
in Washington about the time that Esterline was
scheduled to land in Guatemala.*
With Esterline in Guatemala and Alejos in the
United States, Esterline sent an OPIM cable to the
Director requesting that Dick Drain, Chief of Opera-
tions, WH/4, attempt to contact Alejos to discuss
the proposed secret agreement regarding the request
by the government of Guatemala for US Special Forces
trainers. But, unfortunately, Mr. Alejos, instead of
being in Washington as anticipated, was somewhere in
New York; and there was no possibility of getting his,
advice and guidance prior to the time that Esterline
had his meeting with Ydigoras. 66/ In any event,
the results of a two hour meeting that Dand Esterline
* Al.ejos was coming to the United States at this time
as a member of the Guatemalan coffee group -- thanks
to the Agency's efforts on his behalf!
- 63/
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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.