612. Editorial Note
Beginning in mid-November, the Special Group, or 5412 Committee, began to envision a different concept from that adopted in March for the training of Cuban exiles for the overthrow of the Castro regime.
According to Tracy Barnes of the Central Intelligence Agency, in testimony on April 22, 1961, before General Maxwell Taylor’s Board of Inquiry on Cuban Operations, the Special Group began weekly discussions the previous fall regarding a modification of the Cuban plans. Records of the Special Group indicate that on November 16, Under Secretary of State Merchant noted “the changing concept of the operation. By November 1960, it was recognized that guerrilla warfare operations in the Escambrays were not going well; we were having difficulty with air drops and some change in approach was needed.” Richard M. Bissell, Jr., of the Central Intelligence Agency, told the Board of Inquiry that “one of the problems at this time was the Department of State’s concern about tainting Guatemala and Nicaragua if the size was augmented.” He noted that the Central Intelligence Agency was asked to consider withdrawing the training operation from Guatemala and relocating it in the United States. Upon further consideration, “the use of a base in the continental U.S. was ruled out.” (Luis Aguilar, Operation ZAPATA: The “Ultrasensitive” Report and Testimony of the Board of Inquiry on the Bay of Pigs (Frederick, Maryland: University Publications of America, 1983), pages 58–59) A copy of the Board of Inquiry’s report is in National Defense University, Taylor Papers, Box 12, Bay of Pigs 1961.