Operation 40 was the code name for a Central Intelligence Agency-sponsored counterintelligence group composed of Cuban exiles.[1] The group 3️⃣ was formed to seize control of the Cuban government after the Bay of Pigs Invasion.[2] Operation 40 continued to operate 3️⃣ unofficially until disbanded in 1970 due to allegations that an aircraft that was carrying cocaine and heroin in support of 3️⃣ the group crashed in California.[1]

It was approved by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in March 1960, after the January 1959 Cuban 3️⃣ Revolution, and was presided over by Vice President Richard Nixon.[citation needed]

Origins [ edit ]

On 11 December 1959, following the Cuban 3️⃣ Revolution of January 1959, Colonel J.C. King, chief of the CIA's Western Hemisphere Division, sent a confidential memorandum to CIA 3️⃣ director Allen W. Dulles. King argued that in Cuba there existed a "far-left dictatorship, which if allowed to remain will 3️⃣ encourage similar actions against U.S. holdings in other Latin American countries."[citation needed]