SOMOZO COMPLETING BOOK ON BAY OF PIGS INVASION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000700310019-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 11, 2006
• Sequence Number: 19
• Publication Date: August 25, 1965
• Content Type: NSPR

THE LATIN AMERICAN TIMM
Approved For ReleafeW2$0 '01 ow: YoricRq
AUG 2 5 1965
days." As for fixed responsibili-
ty. for the failure, he said "the
Som.ozo Com letil~ Book obligation. to on all the wnv
? wasn't carried. out."
Asked if this was a criticism
1 B of l Pigs Invasion
lof the last minute decision not
to give U. S. air cover to the
invading -forces, Somoza said:
"Air protection was one aspect.
But all the way means every-
thing that's necessary.- That
was the obligation."
Somoza said that Kennedy
was the victim of his inex-
perience as a recently-installed!
president. "I can honestly say
that 90 per cent of the errors-
committed during my adminis
WASHINGTON Aug. 24 s "There were many of us in-
(UPI) - Senator Luis~Somoza,l volved, and today I think that
ex-president of Nicaragua, said at that time I was a coward,"
he is completing a book on them Somoza said. Although he didn't
,ill-fated invasion of the Bay of elaborate, he said his "cow-
:Pigs, Cuba, in which he tries; ardice" had consisted in not
to justify that action, of which `giving " full support to the
'he feels a co-participant, and' Cuban forces which mftde up
at the same time defend the I the invading force, "in spite
position of the late president, of the fact that Nicaragua was
' John F. Kennedy. the one. which really assumed
country. He said he expected Among the "many responsi
the book to be published be-ble" for the failure of the
fore the end of the year, ?
B
f Pi
j.
ay o
gs, Somoza pointed to
The senator said he ? I ad- ''President Kennedy's advisers," t neiro and other Inter-American;
vocates an invasion of Cuua and: sbut he didn't name names. He documents "will be wet paper"
he criticized the "absence of said that Kennedy 'was -push- and "will have no reason for be-;
decisions" on the part of the, ed" and that the way things de-wing" until the OAS adopts.
Organization o f A m. erican i. veloped d e monstrated that "concrete decisions" to solve;
States (OAS) in an attempt to ,'those advisers "were incapa- the Cuban crisis. "It appears
solve, the Cuban problem, .So-'.ble?" there is no desire to make such'
?moza, ? made these statements! Somoza said: "Kennedy' was decisions," he added.
%to United Pres
I
t
s
n
ernational pushed to go' to. Vienna to see He said the, argument about"
during a quick visit to , this, Nikita Khrushchev when the the free determination of peo-{
city. . ; Cuban . invasion had already pie was not valid while Cuha
Th
at was vna.Ol and ~~ V v V ~
The ex-president of Nicara?`.the,rnany
errors made in.those V that this factor, combined
gua said he came to Washing-; - - ? ? +~-:: ? 'with Inter-American obliga-
.,,ton on private business, deal- 'tions, justifies an invasion of
"ing with his sugar interests,; tuba.
but that he had conferred.with On Dominican 1iepublic
i Jack Hood Vaughn, under sec Citing the Dominican Repub-
retary of state for Latin' 'lie, Somoza said this country,
American affairs, last week. like many others \ .in Latin
Commenting on the U. S. gov- ;America, was -under the influ-
etnment's recommendation to once . of a rapidly-increasink
eliminate the tax on the im- ('communist infiltration, He said
port of sugar, Somoza said this the Alliance for Progress has
proved President Johnson's de- meant a. truce in many cases,
sire to "share the economic but that communism continues
well-being of the U. S. with to be a. potential danger land''
Latin American countries." that nothing would be accom-
Somoza said he had "reser- plished by an "ostrich policy."'
va.t.ions" with 'respect to the Somoza declared he favored'
Bay of Pigs versions in the a permanent 'Inter-American
books written' by Theodore C.1 peace fo1'ce to cooperate in the''
Sorenson : and Arthur Schle-I fight against communism, but
singer Jr., whose , principal. that such force must be invest-i
chapters have been published: ed with specific powers "so
in two U. S., magazines in re- that it won't become a whip at`
cent weeks. "I feel that the; the service of international
.,whole truth has not been' 'whipping boys, but an efficient:
told," Somoza said, , adding; !instrument to combat :com.1
that his book will contain the; fmunlsm."
"version of an actor, because ; , Somoza: praised President'
was an actor in that drama. Johnson,.. 'saying' he Is an,
Both Sorensen's and, Schle-' "extraordinary"; man:
singer's interpretations have
caused ? much . debate In the.
rpnito,States,,, ;- .ter... .r.ay
Approved For Release 2006/10111:CIA-RDP75-00149R000700310019-4
,somoza was president 'when- responsibility as an aggressor." first six months,", he pointed
out.
The Nicaraguan senator said.
the reciprocal ' Inter-American.
STAT