Bay of Pigs issues still unanswered

But, according to the Archive's Peter Kornbluh, the 150-page report by the late Lyman B. Kirkpatrick is only the tip of a paper iceberg still stashed away at the agency's headquarters in Langley, Va.

He estimates there are still about 30,000 pages of CIA operational documents related to the Bay of Pigs that remain secret, of which perhaps 10 percent -- or 3,000 pages -- is expected to be declassified soon.

Kornbluh, a senior analyst who heads the Archive's Cuba documentation project, has been engaged in a 10-year effort to obtain documents related to U.S.-Cuba relations since Fidel Castro came to power in 1959.

That effort helped obtain the release some years ago of 10,000 pages of documents related to the 1962 Cuban missile crisis and a small number relating to the Bay of Pigs.

Documents still withheld

Only several hundred pages of Bay of Pigs documents have been released by the CIA, including the lone remaining copy of Kirkpatrick's report, which came after a two-year effort by the Archive.

The remaining still-classified documents, Kornbluh contends, ``continue to be withheld because members of the directorate of operations [clandestine services] are concerned that they will reflect badly on the early history of the CIA.''

Among the significant ones still to be released, Kornbluh says, is the complete report by the Taylor Commission -- headed by the late Gen. Maxwell Taylor -- which analyzed the invasion for the Kennedy administration. Portions of the Taylor report were released years ago, but the complete document remains classified.

Also yet to be declassified, Kornbluh says, is a four-volume internal history of the invasion written by the late Jack B. Pfeiffer, an agency historian.

Pfeiffer himself wanted to see his work declassified and before his death sued the CIA unsuccessfully for its release.

Still another document that remains secret is a 47-page ``after action'' report written by Jack Hawkins, a retired Marine colonel who headed the paramilitary staff for the Bay of Pigs invasion. Hawkins recently made a formal request for its release, so far to no avail.

Jake Esterline, who headed the CIA's Bay of Pigs Task Force, has also requested release of documents he authored, again so far without success.

Kornbluh believes it's too early to tell what unanswered questions might be answered by the still-secret Bay of Pigs documents.

Waiting for Cuba's story

Kornbluh notes, however, that history is usually written by the victors and the full story from the Cuban side has yet to be told.

``The thing that bothers me,'' Esterline says, ``is that the recent death of [Manuel] Piñeiro further closed the window of opportunity of ever understanding the full extent, if any, of the Castro government involvement with the death of President Kennedy.''

Piñeiro, known as Barba Roja (Red Beard), Cuba's longtime foreign intelligence chief, died in a car crash in Havana this year.

``With [Che] Guevara also gone, there probably are only two or three, including Castro himself, who would be familiar with things we have never understood,'' Esterline says.