William "Rip" Robertson

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William "Rip" Robertson - American Central Intelligence Agency operative
Robertson was born in Texas. During WWII he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and served in the Pacific theater. He later entered the CIA and served as a counter-intelligence agent. He was assigned to the Executive Action operation that was designed to remove unsatisfactory (to the CIA) foreign leaders from power. One such action was the overthrow of the head of Guatemala Jacobo Arbenz in 1954. Later Robertson was discovered to be responsible for ordering a British ship bombed, he had misidentified it as a Russian ship. Afterwards be was deemed an outcast by the CIA. He then worked as an advisor to Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza Garcia. Prior to the Bay of Pigs invasion he resumed work for the CIA. During the battle he commanded the ship Barbara J while Grayston Lynch commanded the ship Blagar. They were the only two American CIA operatives involved in the actual Bay of Pigs invasion. Robertson died in 1973 in Laos due to the effects of malaria.