William
(Rip) Robertson was born in Texas. He joined the United
States Marines and served in the Pacific
during the Second World War.
After
the war Robertson joined the Central Intelligence
Agency. He was
employed as a counter-intelligence agent and was involved in what
became known as
Executive Action
(a
plan to remove unfriendly foreign leaders from power).
This including a coup d'état that overthrew the Guatemalan
government of Jacobo
Arbenz in
1954 after he introduced land reforms and nationalized the United
Fruit Company.
Robertson became a CIA
outcast after he was found responsible for ordering the bombing of
a British ship which he had mistakenly identified as Russian. He moved
to Nicaragua where he worked as an
adviser to the government of Anastasio Somoza.
Robertson returned to the
CIA before the Bay
of Pigs operation. He commanded the supply ship Barbara
J and disobeyed orders by landing in Cuba with Brigade
2506. Afterwards Roberson became a member of staff
at CIA's JM WAVE station
in Miami.
In the winter of 1962 Eddie
Bayo claimed that two officers in the Red
Army based in Cuba wanted to defect
to the United States. Bayo added that these
men wanted to pass on details about atomic warheads and missiles that
were still in Cuba despite the agreement that followed the Cuban
Missile Crisis.
Bayo had originally fought
with
