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tgp 3ECR:E 1 involved in establishing this Agency activity on the island. 60/ Coordination also had to be effected with the United States Coast Guard in order that there be no interference with maritime activities; and the Immigration and Naturalization Service was alerted to the need to facilitate the entry of Cuban defectors. 61/ As attempts were being made to establish the parameters for the operations against Castro, a most prescient memorandum was directed to Chief, WH/4 from Paul Oberst, Chief, Covert Action, WH Division. Oberst apparently had been associated with PBSUCCESS, the project which resulted in the ouster of the Arbenz Government in Guatemala in 1954; and recalling some of the "pitfalls and counter-productive aspects" of that particular operation, Oberst wrote as follows: I have the impressio~ that our basic JMARC plan Gomrnits us to a rather firm timetable. In my jUdgment, we should have great flexibility in deciding the appropriate time for kicking off any paramilitary operations. Before such operatiorts are initiated, we should have firm evidence that our propaganda and political action operations have irrev- ocably undermined Castro's prestige, both in Cuba and abroad. We should not initiate paramilitary actions until we are convinced that they will not enable - 86 -