◆ SpookStack

wrote that "as work on this plan progressed, the gradual impression developed that on balance the CIA preferred this plan to the '57/ original Trinidad Plan." - With the possible exception of a memorandum, probably written by Richard Bissell, which gave a "Balance stronglY favors 'Z' .. estimate that the chances of success at Zapata were probably better than at Trinidad, CIA records for the period between 11 and 16 March 1961 make clear that the zapata plan was regarded as achievable but far less desirable than Trinidad .. The planners of Trinidad were aware of the geography and natural features of the area and had no doubt that if worse came to worse there were good prospects that a cohesive, organized , guerrilla effort could move into the Escambray. In like fashion, the planners also were aware that the marsh lands of the Zapata swamp provided little, if any, possibilities for conducting formidable guerrilla type activities. They were conscious, too, of the fact that Trinidad lay a hundred miles further away from Havana than did Playa Giron, a matter of distance which might have a direct bearing on success or failure of the invasion. In an operation which already had been found wanting in certain aspects of its logistical planning, the requirement that initial use of B-26 aircraft would be contingent upon capture of the airstrip at Playa Giron concurrent with the invasion required a major effort to reorganize the basic loading of several of 67