4/15/1960

“MID APRIL 1960: David Phillips [Chief of Propaganda for CIA] meets with the CIA official in charge of the Cuba operation, Deputy Director for Plans Richard Bissell. When Bissell asks how long it will take to create the proper psychological climate, Phillips says it will take about six months. Bissell directs the propaganda chief to have Radio Swan up and running in one month. On Swan Island, a tiny, contested territory located about 100 miles off Honduras; the CIA begins construction of a 50-kilowatt medium-wave radio station. The island had served as a base for CIA broadcasting during the agency’s successful campaign to oust Guatemala’s President Arbenz, and some radio equipment used in that operation is still on the island. Phillips obtains a transmitter from the U. S. Army in Germany, which was preparing to make it available to the Voice of America. A detachment of Navy Seabees constructs a pier at Swan Island to facilitate the unloading of the equipment.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]

“The Bay of Pigs Invasion/Playa Giron: A Chronology of Events,” The National Security Archive, NSArchive2.gwu.edu