This document serves a Central Intelligence Agency internal history of Operation PBSuccess. It documents how poorly the operation was actually planned and executed, nearly resulting in total failure. However, it also documents how the CIA was able to pass PBSuccess of as complete victory, enshrining it as a model of confidence that would later undermine the Bay of Pigs invasion.
This document is important to my research because it helps shed light on how the CIA perceived the operation. This insider history reveals how the agency’s priorities of optics would nearly cost the operation’s success while still passing it off as a victory.
Full Document: https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB4/docs/doc05.pdf
“Operation PBSUCCESS: The United States and Guatemala, 1952- 1954”, CIA History Staff document by Nicholas Cullather, 1994. Excerpt. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB4/