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Bay of Pigs secrets
Posted on Mon, Aug. 15,
2005 in The
Miami Herald.
Even in Washington, where official secrecy
is a handy way to cover up mistakes and
embarrassments, it's hard to believe that
bureaucrats still are sitting on most of
the CIA's own history of the Bay of Pigs.
One of four volumes of the misbegotten 1961
invasion of Cuba was quietly released a
few years ago and, somewhat by accident,
recently came to light, as described in
a front page article in The Herald last
week.
The story that volume tells is astonishing:
Even before John F. Kennedy became president,
the CIA task force in charge of planning
concluded that the invasion could not succeed
as a covert military operation. It's not
clear whether the president-elect was informed
of this view, yet still the invasion went
on -- with even fewer men and resources
than the CIA planners had envisioned when
they decided it wouldn't work. The words
treachery, betrayal, incompetence and double-cross
come to mind.
It raises the question of how many more
embarrassing secrets are contained in the
other, still-secret volumes written by Jack
Pfeiffer, official historian of the Central
Intelligence Agency. More than 44 years
after the event, three volumes remain under
wraps. One covers CIA air operations against
Cuba and another covers foreign relations
and likely CIA activities in Latin America.
The third covers matters yet unknown.
They should all be released, as soon as
possible. The living veterans of the Bay
of Pigs, who now know that their sacrifices
and heroic efforts were compromised from
the start, deserve to know the full story.
How can we learn the lessons of the past
if they are stamped ''secret'' and stashed
in a vault?
Some disclosures may cause more pain, and
will surely cause embarrassment to some
involved in this clandestine enterprise,
but in a democracy truth is supposed to
be exposed, not hidden. That's one of the
differences between the United States and
a tyranny such as Fidel Castro's Cuba. Isn't
it?
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