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question in issue, he pointed out that the Agency's position was that unless bases in the US could be obtained, the only acceptable land mass from which we could fly the B-26's to strike Cuba was Puerto Cabezas. ~/ In preparing material for Barnes prior to a 5 January 1961 meeting of the Special Group, the Chief of WH/4, P&P, the hard-nosed, hard-talking Dick Drain noted an even more significant problem concerning the situation in Nicaragua. Drain pointed out that the Special Group in its meetings of 8 and 15 December had left a number of points hanging, including the authority to use the airstrip at Puerto Cabezas for spoiling raids and tactical air support, and in ref- erence to those two meetings of the Special Group, Drain wrote: There was considerable discussion of the logistics timing involved in the development of the strip for strikes in the time framework of 15 Feb - 1 Mar. Even though the logistics factors alone would seem to make it necessary for the Group now to approve this facility for airstrikes, it was felt that the more basic question was the very approval of airstrikes. It was therefore agreed that this Special Group would be asked