Safe for democracy, p.113
Safe for Democracy, page 113
177 “almost too effective in certain instances”: Editorial Note on May 1, 1958, NSC Meeting. FRUS 1958–1960, v. xvii, p. 130.
178 “every rebellion I have ever heard of had its soldiers of fortune”: New York Times, May 1, 1958.
178 “a lot of confidence in the man”: Foster Dulles to Gen. Charles Cabell Telephone Notes, May 19, 1958, 3:02 P.M. JFDP: TS, folder “April–May 1958 (1).”
178 “We’re pulling the plug”: Kenneth Conboy and James Morrison, Feet to the Fire (Annapolis, Naval Institute Press, 1999), quoted p. 143.
179 “anywhere this struggle is being fought”: CIA, Memorandum, Allen Dulles to Secretary Dulles et al., May 21, 1958 (declassified July 23, 2001), DDEL: JFD Papers, White House Memoranda Series, box 8, folder “Conversations with Dulles, Allen (1).”
179 “we must disengage”: Smith, Portrait of a Cold Warrior, quoted p. 247.
179 “The American intervention was a gift to Sukarno”: Brian May, The Indonesian Tragedy (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1978), p. 80.
180 “this unfortunate situation”: PBCFIA Memorandum, Gen. John E. Hull to Dwight D. Eisenhower, October 30, 1958 (declassified April 9, 1997), DDEL, box 7, folder “PBCFIA Third Report (3).”
181 “We used to say”: Thompson, The Eisenhower Presidency, p. 107.
182 “to obviate any tendency for congressional groups . . . to get into these activities”: Memorandum, Andrew Goodpaster to Bryce Harlow, January 2, 1959. DDEL:DDEP: WHO: OSS: Subject series, Alphabetic subseries, box 7, folder “CIA, v. II (2).”
182 “the criteria with respect to what matters shall come before the Group” et seq.: Memorandum, Gordon Gray to Dwight D. Eisenhower, January 18, 1959 (declassified June 8, 1979). DDEL:DDEP: WHO: OSANSA: Subject series, Alphabetic subseries, box 15, folder “Intelligence Matters (8).”
182 “the President . . . referred to one particular activity”: NSC, Gordon Gray, “Memorandum of Meeting with the President,” June 26, 1959 (declassified October 28, 1981), DDEL:DDEP: WHO: OSANSA: Special Assistant series, box 4, folder “Meetings with the President, 1959 (1).”
10: THE WAR FOR THE ROOF OF THE WORLD
186 “nest of spies” et seq.: Neville Maxwell, India’s China War (New York, Doubleday, 1972), p. 100.
186 Meeting with American: George N. Patterson, Tibet in Revolt (London, Faber and Faber, 1960), pp. 120–122.
187 “buried in the lore of the CIA”: L. Fletcher Prouty, The Secret Team (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice-Hall, 1973), p. 351.
191 “I saw the weapons, guns and rifles, come in by night”: Han Suyin, Lhasa: The Open City (London, Triad Panther Books, 1979), quoted p. 70.
193 “I felt I was standing between two volcanos”: Richard Avedon, In Exile from the Land of Snows (New York, Knopf, 1984), quoted p. 116.
193 “one of the strangest and most ill-understood coups”: Michel Peissel, The Secret War in Tibet (Boston, Little, Brown, 1972), p. 116.
194 “if, as a result of the new social experiment”: NSC, Memorandum, Gordon Gray to James S. Lay, November 1, 1958, DDEL:DDEP: WHO: OSANSA: Special Assistant series, Subject subseries, box 11, folder “Basic National Security Policy.”
194 “if the Tibetans are able to maintain their resistance movement” et seq.: Department of State, “Uprisings in Communist China,” undated (declassified July 31, 1985), p. 4, DDEL:DDEP: WHO: OSANSA: NSC: Series, Briefing Notes subseries, box 5, folder “Communist China.”
194 “the Tibetan uprisings apparently have resulted”: White House, Office of the Staff Secretary, “Synopsis of Intelligence,” March 23, 1959 (declassified June 8, 1982), DDEL:DDEP: WHO: OSS: Subject series, Alphabetical subseries, box 14, folder “Intelligence Briefing Notes v. I (5).”
194–5 “command center” and “What is the Home Ministry doing?” et seq.: Chanakya Sen, Tibet Disappears (New York, Asia Publishing House, 1960), quoted p. 176.
195 “We have informed embassy New Delhi” et seq.: White House, Office of the Staff Secretary, “Synopsis of Intelligence,” April 1, 1959 (declassified December 9, 1983), OSS: Subject series, folder “Intelligence Briefing Notes v. I (6).”
196 “You must help us as soon as possible”: Message received April 2, 1959 (declassified July 9, 1981), pp. 2–3. DDEL:DDEP: WHO: OSANSA: Special Assistant series, Alphabetical subseries, box 15, folder “Intelligence Matters (9).”
196 “affirmative and positive action”: JCS Paper, FRUS, 1958–1960, v. xix, China, p. 769.
198 “a resolution recognizing [Tibet’s] independence or sovereignty” et seq.: Christian Herter to Henry Cabot Lodge, Telephone Notes, October 6, 1959, 1:05 P.M. (declassified January 23, 1986), DDEL: Christian Herter Papers, box 12, folder “CAH Phone Calls 5/4/59–12/31/59.”
198 “We Tibetans have determined to fight to the last”: Letter, Gompo Tashi to Dwight D. Eisenhower, December 9, 1959, DDEL:DDEP: WHO: OSS: International Series, box 13, folder “Tibet (2).”
198 “channels considered by the embassy”: Department of State, Memorandum, Thomas McElhiney to Andrew Goodpaster, December 15, 1959, ibid. State regarded the Tibetan gifts as a miscellaneous protocol matter left over from the president’s trip to India. The White House raised no objection.
199 “As a result of the discussion the DCI said he would reorient his thinking”: NSC, Gordon Gray, “Memorandum of Meeting with the President,” September 15, 1960 (declassified December 11, 1981), DDEL:DDEP: WHO: OSANSA: Special Assistant series, Presidential subseries, box 5, folder “1960 Meetings with the President, v. II (6).”
200 “Mr. Dulles reported to the President on certain consultations he had had”: NSC, Gordon Gray, “Memorandum of Meeting with the President,” November 28, 1960, ibid., folder “1960 Meetings with the President v. II (3).”
200 “spooky activities” and “deeply unhygienic tribesmen” et seq.: John Kenneth Galbraith, A Life in Our Times (Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1981), p. 395.
201 “I was especially disturbed by this particularly insane enterprise”: ibid.
201 “Bulletin of Activities”: Avedon, In Exile (p. 124), places this incident in 1966, but the release of the Chinese political journals was reported in the press at the time. Multiple sources confirm that notice. The documents were even given extensive analysis in an academic paper by J. Chester Cheng, “Problems of Chinese Leadership as Seen in the Secret Military Papers,” Asian Survey, June 1964, pp. 861–872.
201 “resulted in a bonanza”: Cline, Secrets, Spies, and Scholars, p. 181.
203 “a certain operational hubris” et seq.: Kenneth Knaus, Orphans of the Cold War (New York, Public Affairs Press, 1999), quoted p. 323.
11: “ANOTHER BLACK HOLE OF CALCUTTA”
204 “In Cuba the rebel drive”: White House, Office of the Staff Secretary, “Synopsis of Intelligence and State Material Reported to the President,” December 29, 1958 (declassified April 5, 1982), DDEL:DDEP: WHO: OSS: Subject Series, Alphabetic subseries, box 14, folder “Intelligence Briefing Notes v. I (3).”
206 “I am the Che” et seq.: Marvin D. Resnick, The Black Beret (New York, Ballantine Books, 1969), quoted pp. 141–142.
206 “far from stable” et seq.: CIA, “Memorandum to Director,” February 4, 1959 (declassified July 15, 1981), pp. 1, 3, DDEL:DDEP: AWF: Dulles-Herter series, box 8, folder “Dulles, February 1959.”
206 “He is either incredibly naïve” et seq.: Richard Nixon, RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon (New York: Warner Books, 1979), v. I, p. 250.
207 “With regard to his position on communism” and “We will check back in a year”: Department of State, Memorandum, Christian Herter to Dwight D. Eisenhower, with attachment, “Unofficial Visit of Prime Minister Castro,” April 23, 1959 (declassified December 22, 1976), DDEL:DDEP: Dulles-Herter series, box 9, folder ‘Herter, April 1959 (2).”
208 “anti-communists have an interest in rumors”: James M. Keagle, “Toward an Understanding of U.S. Latin American Policy,” Princeton University, Ph.D. dissertation, 1982, quoted p. 90.
208 “In view of the special sensitivity”: Department of State, Memorandum, Christian Herter to Dwight D. Eisenhower, November 5, 1959 (declassified February 3, 1981), DDEL:DDEP: WHO: OSS: International series, box 4, folder “Cuba (1) [1959].”
208 “He hoped that any refusal” et seq.: Cable, Ambassador Sir Harold Caccia to Foreign Minister Selwyn Lloyd, November 24, 1959, United Kingdom: Public Record Office, reprinted, New York Times, March 25, 2001, p. WK7.
209 “ ‘far left’ dictatorship” et seq.: CIA, Memorandum, J. C. King to Allen W. Dulles, “Cuban Problems,” December 11, 1959, reprinted in Jack B. Pfeiffer, Official History of the Bay of Pigs Operation: v. III: Evolution of CIA’s Anti-Castro Policies, 1959–January 1961, TS-795052 (DCI-8), CIA History Staff, December 1979 (declassified Historical Review Program, 1998), Appendix A (hereafter cited as Pfeiffer, CIA History). The document is held at NARA in the records of the Kennedy Assassination Records Commission. The author is indebted to historians David M. Barrett and Peter Kornbluh for his copy. Excerpts of this document have appeared in the Church Committee staff study Alleged Assassination Plots and elsewhere.
209 “removal from Cuba”: Dulles’s marginalia on King’s memorandum is reported in the CIA’s official history of the Cuba project, ibid.
209 “over the long run”: Church Committee, Alleged Assassination Plots, quoted p. 93.
210 “Allen, this is fine” et seq.: Gordon Gray interview, Eisenhower Oral History no. 352, quoted p. 27–28.
210 “stick their necks out further” et seq.: CIA, “Memorandum for the Record,” March 9, 1960 (declassified May 7, 1976), Case Files, Borosage v. CIA et al. (USDCDDC 75-0944).
211 “any plan for removal of Cuban leaders” et seq.: Church Committee, Alleged Assassination Plots, pp. 93, 114–116. Pfeiffer, CIA History, v. 3, pp. 64–65. Admiral Burke, when asked about his comment during the Church Committee investigation, insisted he had referred only to general plans that led to the Bay of Pigs, not to any specific notion of attempting assassinations. Note that as of this date the CIA covert action plan for Cuba had yet to be presented, though the draft proposal had been completed the previous day.
211 Black Hole of Calcutta: ibid.
211–2 “A Program of Action Against the Castro Regime” et seq.: The CIA project proposal memorandum appears in full in Pfeiffer, CIA History, v. 3, Appendix B. It also appears in the papers of the CIA Inspector General Study of the Cuba operation (Kirkpatrick Report), the Taylor Board Report, the Kennedy Assassination records, and the Eisenhower papers.
213 “the current thinking as to the timetable”: NSC, Gordon Gray, “Memorandum of Meeting with the President,” July 6, 1960 (declassified October 25, 1977), DDEL:DDEP: WHO: OSANSA: Special Assistant series, Presidential subseries, box 4, folder “1960 Meetings with the President, v. I (1).”
214 “There would be no conceivable hazard involved” et seq.: Gordon Gray, “Memorandum of Conference with the President,” August 22, 1960 (declassified April 9, 1998), DDEL:DDEP: WHO: OSS: Subject series, Alphabetic subseries, box 15, folder “Intelligence Matters (17).”
214–5 “It is needed to supply and train” et seq.: Thompson, Eisenhower Presidency, p. 219. Stans quotes Dulles and Eisenhower.
216 “I had no desire to become personally involved” et seq.: Bissell, et al., Richard M. Bissell, Jr., with Jonathan E. Lewis and Francis T. Pudlo, Reflections of a Cold Warrior: From Yalta to the Bay of Pigs (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996), p. 157.
216 “It is appropriate to conjecture”: CIA, Inspector General, “Memorandum for the Record: Report on Plots to Assassinate Fidel Castro,” May 23, 1967 (declassified HRP, 1993), p. 18, NARA, records of the Kennedy Assassination Records Commission.
219 “The CIA men wanted to put in our hands” et. seq.: Thomas J. Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University, and the National Security Archive (ed. James G. Blight), Conference Proceedings: The Bay of Pigs: New Evidence from Documents and Testimony of the Kennedy Administration, Brigade 2506 and the Anti-Castro Resistance, 31 May–2 June 1996 (hereafter cited as 1996 Bay of Pigs Conference), pp. 25–27. A book based upon these proceedings was published subsequently: James G. Blight and Peter Kornbluh, eds., The Politics of Illusion: The Bay of Pigs Invasion Reconsidered (Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Reiner Publishers, 1997). These proceedings should not be confused with those of the 2001 conference sponsored by the same groups in Havana (referred to several times in the text), which featured the participation of Fidel Castro and other senior Cuban participants. No formal record of the latter conference is available at this writing.
220 “lively appreciation” et seq.: Richard Bissell, Reflections of a Cold Warrior, p. 152–153.
221 “In the preparations for and conduct of”: Richard M. Bissell, Jr., Oral History, November 9, 1976, DDEL, p. 27.
221 “get the hang of secret operations” et seq.: Helms, A Look Over My Shoulder, pp. 176–177.
221 “verbal diarrhea”: Pfeiffer, CIA History, v. 3, 187–188.
224 “knocked off”: 1996 Bay of Pigs Conference, ms., p. 59.
224 “I would talk it to Esterline”: CIA, Richard Bissell Interview with Jack Pfeiffer, October 17, 1975 (declassified), p. 31.
224 “By late fall 1960”: Bissell, Reflections of a Cold Warrior, p. 157.
225 “assault force” et seq.: CIA Cable, Director 09972, October 31, 1960 (declassified March 1985), JFKL: JFKP: NSF: Country File, box 61-b, folder “Cuba: Subjects—Paramilitary Study Group, Part III, Annex 4.”
225 “there would occur a point in time”: CIA, “Minutes of Special Group Meeting,” November 3, 1960 (declassified June 18, 1996), GRFL: GRFP: Rockefeller Commission Parallel File, box 5, folder “Assassination Materials (2) A-I (j).”
228 “discretion for operational action”: CIA, Kirkpatrick Report, quoted pp. 62–63.
229 “Drop the rice and beans”: Phillips, Night Watch, quoted p. 98.
229 “Old Rice and Beans”: ibid.
232 “in the position of turning over the government”: NSC, Gordon Gray, “Memorandum of Meeting with the President,” December 5, 1960 (declassified May 23, 1983), DDEL:DDEP: WHO: OSANSA: Special Assistant series, Presidential subseries, box 5, folder “1960 Meetings with the President v. II (2).”
233 “to the utmost”: Clifford, Counsel to the President, quoted, p. 344.
235 “Now boys, if you don’t intend to go through with this”: Gordon Gray interview, Eisenhower Oral History no. 352, DDEL, quoted p. 37.
12: THE BAY OF PIGS: FAILURE AT PLAYA GIRÓN
237 “some problems in Guatemala” et seq.: Victor Andres Triay, ed. Bay of Pigs: An Oral History of Brigade 2506 (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2001), pp. 47, 52, 54. Hunt’s account of the visit of frente political leaders is in Howard Hunt, Give Us This Day (New Rochelle, N.Y., Arlington House, 1973).
238 “quite well”: Allen W. Dulles, Oral History, December 5, 1964, JFKL, p. 1.
239 “I did not brief candidates”: Peter Grose, Gentleman Spy: The Life of Allen Dulles (Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1994), quoted p. 507.
239 “A search of CIA records”: John L. Helgerson, Getting to Know the President: CIA Briefings of Presidential Candidates (CIA, Center for the Study of Intelligence, 1996), p. 55.
240 “fighters for freedom” et seq.: Schlesinger, A Thousand Days, quoted p. 212. For Nixon’s account see his Six Crises (New York, Pyramid Books, 1968), pp. 380–381 and 381 n.
240 “an honest misunderstanding”: CIA, “Excerpts: Allen Dulles–Eric Severeid Interview,” April 26, 1962, p. 6, JFKL: JFKP: National Security File (hereafter JFKL:JFKP: NSF): Agency File, box 271, folder “CIA 3/62–4/62.”
241 “I blame Nixon”: CIA History Staff, Jacob Esterline CIA interview with Jack Pfeiffer, p. 49. Cf pp. 11–12, 38.
241 “The plan, as we outlined it to him”: Richard Bissell Oral History, April 25, 1967, p. 3.
241 “qualified go ahead”: Hunt, Give Us This Day.
242 “just didn’t know beans”: Robert Amory, Jr., JFKL Oral History, February 9, 1966, p. 24.
243 “a great increase . . . in popular opposition”: National Security Council, Memorandum of Discussion on Cuba, January 28, 1961 (declassified March 22, 2000), JFKL: JFKP: NSF: Country File: Cuba, box 61A, folder “Paramilitary Study Group.”
243 “It was very ethereal”: President’s Review Board (Taylor Committee), Memorandum for the Record, Meeting at 1350 Hours, April 24, 1961, p. 8 (declassified March 22, 2000), ibid.
244 “Military Evaluation of CIA Paramilitary Plan” et seq.: This and the other documents noted subsequently are contained in the Taylor report among its exhibits, JFKL.
244 “Very little plotting goes on”: Sarah Booth Conway, “A Peek at Privilege: Inside the Alibi Club,” Washington Post, June 22, 1992, quoted p. B9.
244 “I’m your man-eating shark”: Peter Wyden, Bay of Pigs: The Untold Story (New York, Simon and Schuster, 1979), quoted p. 95.
245 “Am I likely to be involved in a bail-out operation” et seq.: Robert L. Dennison interview, U.S. Navy Oral History. U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, October 1979, p. 111.
245 “just about a year ago”: David M. Barrett, The CIA and Congress (Lawrence, University Press of Kansas, 2005), pp. 440–445, quoted p. 441.
246 “I stood right here at Ike’s desk”: Theodore Sorensen, Kennedy (New York, Bantam Books, 1966), quoted p. 332.
246 “Don’t forget”: Schlesinger, A Thousand Days, quoted p. 227.
246 “If I ever made a suggestion like that”: Esterline CIA interview, quoted p. 51.
247 “I say, ‘let ’er rip!”: Wyden, Bay of Pigs, quoted p. 147.
249 “Have any of you” et seq.: Phillips, Night Watch, quoted p. 104.
249–50 “MY OBSERVATIONS”: Manuel Artime, et al., “We Who Tried,” Life, May 10, 1963, quoted p. 34. The original of the cable appears in the Taylor and Kirkpatrick reports and is widely cited elsewhere.
251 “I am forced”: Kornbluh, Bay of Pigs Declassified, p. 264.
