A report kept secret for nearly 40 years lays the blame on United States intelligence for the failed US attempt to invade Cuba in 1961.

The report, prepared by the Central Intelligence Agency, criticises almost every aspect of its own handling of the Bay of Pigs invasion.

All but one copy of the report - one of the most sensitive documents of the Cold War - was destroyed. After 36 years the surviving copy has been prised from the safe of the CIA director by the Washington-based National Security Archive, using America's Freedom of Information Act.

The CIA report says it was was entirely responsible for the Bay of Pigs fiasco, accusing its agents of incompetence, ignorance and arrogance.

Few of the agents training the 1,400 Cuban exiles to mount the invasion could speak Spanish, and the Florida-based Cubans were not treated with respect, it says.

Fidel Castro's army easily defeated the invading Cubans in a mosquito-ridden swamp, killing 200 and capturing more than 1,000.

Up to now, many analysts blamed the debacle on President Kennedy's failure to approve air strikes in support of the operation.

But the report says the CIA let down Kennedy by not explaining the full details.

The agency is condemned for failing to recommend that the mission be cancelled when it was obvious that an ignominious defeat was more likely than a dubious victory.
 

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