Bay of Pigs timeline

[John Geraghty]

I found this timeline of the bay of pigs very helpful and detailed, starting with castros overthrow of Batista.

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/bayofpigs/chron.html

Some interesting snippets

LATE MARCH 1960: David Atlee Phillips, a CIA contract employee who until recently had maintained a public-relations company in Havana, is selected by the CIA as chief of propaganda for the Cuba project. At operation headquarters in Washington, Phillips is told that the Cuba project will go by the Guatemala scenario. (Phillips had performed the same function in PBSUCCESS, the 1954 operation against Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz. During the coup by a CIA?directed exile force, Phillips had operated a clandestine station supporting them.) CIA operative E. Howard Hunt, also a veteran of the Guatemala operation, is assigned the position of chief of political action for the project. His primary responsibility is to form a government-in-exile to replace Castro's government following the invasion. (Wyden, pp.20-22; Hunt, p.23)

MAY 1960: CIA operative Howard Hunt spends several days in Cuba on an undercover visit, during which he observes Cuban attitudes toward the revolutionary government and visits areas around revolution?controlled radio stations. After returning to Washington, he reports on his findings to his supervisors at the CIA and offers several recommendations, including a suggestion that the Agency destroy the Cuban radio and television transmitters before or coincident with the invasion: Hunt's recommendation is based on his belief that without radio and television to inform the country, Castro's heirs would be unable to rally mass support. . (Hunt, pp.36, 38)

I can not overestimate the usefulness of the national security archive website http://www.gwu.edu/%7Ensarchiv/

John

[Michael Hogan]

Two recent books:

The Brilliant Disaster: JFK, Castro, and America's Doomed Invasion of Cuba's Bay of Pigs

by Jim Rasenberger

http://www.amazon.com/Brilliant-Disaster-Castro-Americas-Invasion/dp/141659650X/ref=pd_cp_b_1

Red Heat: Conspiracy, Murder, and the Cold War in the Caribbean

by Alex Von Tunzelman

http://www.amazon.com/Red-Heat-Conspiracy-Murder-Caribbean/dp/0805090673