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. 71 …formalized (16 November 1960), then J. C. King, Chief, Western Hemisphere Division, prepared a memorandum for…
  • p. 76 …C. King, "J. C., this kind of ... " "No, no," he said. "I don't think I…
  • p. 88 …however, was prepared by Colonel J. C. King, Chief, WH Division, not by Thomas A. Parrott…
  • p. 89 …King must have ignored Esterline's warning; but the DCI failed to support King's Plan…
  • p. 117 …of State of the trip and Col. King had informed Thomas Mann. 9/*. In a meeting…
  • p. 120 …to Chief, WH Division (Col. J. C. King) that Robertson be brought into the JMARC program…
  • p. 138 …discuss Project JMATE with President Somoza. Col. King, in speaking of Whelan r~marked as follows…
  • p. 160 …2. Memo for DCI from J. C. King, 29 Feb 60, sub: What We Are Doing…
  • p. 163 …35. Memo for DCI from J. C. King, 21 Oct 60, sub: Observations on Briefing of…
  • p. 167 …TRAV. Memo for DDP from J. C. King, 28 Oct 60, sub: Employment of U.S…
  • p. 169 …10 Jan 61. MR from J. C. King, 11 Jan 61, sub: Meeting to Discuss Proposed…
  • p. 173 …Irving G. CADICK (P) from J. C. King, 2 Dec 60, sub: Letter of Instruction. Ibid…
  • p. 175 …IN 1797). 42. Memo from J. C. King for DCI, 19 Jan 61, sub: Visit of…
toward the end of 1960 that early in January 1971
Carlos Alejos, the Ambassador to the US, released a
statement to the Associated Press from Guatemala's
Minister of Defense, Colonel Enrique Peralta Azurdia,
which claimed that all US military personnel in Guate-
mala were official members of the US Military Mission.
The Minister of Defense not only stated that US person~
nel were engaged exclusively in training Guatemalan
forces for self defense, but he went on to emphasize
the GOG's fear of Castro and communist intervention:
Guatemala is not an aggressor country,
Guatemala is not receiving ten ships every
week loaded with war material [sic] and
equipment manufactured in Communist coun-
tries. Guatemala has no Chinese Communist
instructors. Guatemala has no jet Communist
planes. Guatemala has no Communist guided
rockets and missiles. The only thing Guate-
mala has is men with great hearts ready to
fight for their independence and political
liberties. Batista is not in Guatemald,
but Arbenz is in Cuba. 75a/
Even more significant was that the news stories
inspired some members of the US Congress to make inquir-
ies about CIA involvement; and this, in turn, caused
President Eisenhower to express himself very strongly
on the constitutional issue of the separation of powers.
In a 10 January 1961 meeting of the Special Group, the

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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.