Operation Zapata: The "Ultrasensitive" Report and Testimony of the Board
of Inquiry on the Bay of Pigs. Frederick MD: University Publications of
America, 1984. 367 pages.
Two books in NameBase, "Operation Zapata" and Peter Wyden's "Bay of
Pigs: The Untold Story," deal with the 1961 CIA invasion of Cuba that was
inherited by President Kennedy as soon as he took office. This was the
first embarrassment for a CIA that had come to think of itself as all-
powerful. Hundreds of CIA-trained Cubans and dozens of CIA officials
blamed Kennedy after he failed to involve U.S. forces to salvage a
deteriorating situation. Some of the crucial events in U.S. history since
1961 can be traced back to the Bay of Pigs, and to Kennedy's subsequent
desire to rein in the CIA.
"Operation Zapata" presents the declassified portions of the twenty
meetings held by the Taylor Commission to investigate what went wrong. Top
CIA, military, and national security officials testified, as well as some
Cubans who participated in the invasion. Some names are deleted, and the
material is fairly esoteric except to those who have studied the actual
invasion. But it remains valuable as an unimpeachable historical reference.
ISBN 0-89093-377-4
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