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…
TOP syiET
Minister of Defense of Guatemala, and the President
of Guatemala all visited the various training sites
and indicated considerable pleasure at the progress
that was being made. It was also reported that these
leaders of the GOG were impressed with both the trainees
and their armament; and considering the political un-
rest, it is possible that Ydigoras wanted to get some
idea of the materiel -- if not the personnel (Cuban)
-- that might be used for or against him in an emergency.
Where a few weeks earlier there had been some confusion
over airdrop operations training, by mid-January 1961
it was reported that there was close cooperation be-
tween~and Roberto Alejos with regard to an upcoming
program of this nature.
To belay the charges that the GOG was permitting
CIA a~tivities in his country, R9berto Alejos personally
escorted some Time magazine reporters and a photographer
and an NBC reporter whom President Ydigoras had invited
to visit the JMADD and TRAV sites. Prior to the recep-
tion of the newsmen, however, the Cuban trainees and
Agency personnel, except for sev~ral pilot instructors
and a couple of ground force trainers, had all been

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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.