◆ SpookStack

WP SECRET While a few of these men [from the Domestic Operations Base in Miami] impress me as being good types, for the most part I found them to be too immature and lack- ing in experience to qualify for the job at hand. In any event, they are not in my jUdgment worth the $1,000 per month which we have to pay them. I would like most of them to be GS-4, 5, and 6 students that [sic] we trained at Fort Benning in 1951-52. Under no circumstances would I consider putting thes~ people into Cuba with the Cubans. In closing his report on the visit to Guatemala, Esterline presented the following critical observations of the situation as he saw it. Reflecting on the mission and on the resources available, he wrote: I also reviewed .the problem in the light of the many gaps in policy approval for JMARC, all of which complicate project planning. By the time I arrived back at Headquarters, I had fairly well convinced myself that it is unrealistic for the project or the Agency to try to "go it alone" in opening up another major base in a third country to train from 1,500 to , .. . 3,000 Cubans for a maJor 1nvaS1on effort. I discussed my thinking with Col. Hawkins at length, and found that he shared my view. As a result of this discussion, we re-evaluated our capability and presented you [the DDP] with the recommendation that we limit ourselves to preparing a force of 600 maximum to be used in the manner we outlined to you on 16 November. I still feel this recommendation is quite valid given the limitation on real estate that we are presently working under. If it turns out that we can acquire policy approval for the real estate in the interior, - 154 - WP SeCREl