Morley: CIA Resentment Toward JFK After BoP

[Benjamin Cole]

This will hardly be news to many readers here, but inside the CIA (and within CIA assets, including mercenaries and Cuban exiles) there was a great deal of hostility towards JFK after the BoP.

There were also deep concerns that Latin America would become communist (a large poor population, living under corrupt and often repressive klepto-capitalist governments...what could go wrong?). 

'Bitter Defeat': Top CIA Official Denounced JFK's Resolution of Cuban Missile Crisis 

Deputy director condemned Kennedy for not going to war.

BRAD FOLEY JUN 17

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Deputy Director of Central Intelligence Marshall Carter was likely not alone in the sentiments he shared with CIA Director John McCone on Oct. 29, 1962.

Key figures in the Cuban Missile Crisis: From left, President John F. Kennedy, Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro and Nikita Khrushchev, premier of the Soviet Union.

On the very day the Cuban Missile Crisis ended peacefully, Carter expressed his frustrations over the outcome in a memorandum sent to CIA Director John McCone:

You will recall in my memorandum to you of 18 October, I stated that if the United States decided to take action (against Castro and the missiles of Cuba) in the limited time available, then its objective must surely be the total destruction of the Castro regime and the installation of a government in Cuba favorable to Western ideology. 

Deputy CIA director Marshall Carter, left; director John McCone, right.

DDCI Carter voiced his displeasure with the deal struck between President John F. Kennedy and Soviet Union Premier Nikita Khrushchev, the latter whom agreed to remove missiles from Cuba if the United States promised not to invade Cuba and eventually remove missiles from Turkey:

The United States was building up to just this sort of definitive, firm action when the Soviets, apparently realizing this, proposed their “trade,” i.e., removal of offensive missile bases in return for guarantee of Castro/Communist/Cuba non-invasion. It appears to many this is quite a victory for the United States — I personally view it as a bitter defeat, if in fact the United States gets sucked into establishing a sanctuary in the Western Hemisphere for Castro, for Communism, or for the Soviet Union. 

In terms of the conditions agreed upon with the Soviets, DDCI Carter felt the U.S. was much worse off than prior to October 1962:

If we are so naive as to give Castro or the Soviets these assurances, then we have in fact sold ourselves down the river and we must be prepared to live with and accept increasing overt encroachments by the Soviet Union in the Western Hemisphere.

After the failed Bay of Pigs invasion and what this top CIA man considered a weak response to the missile crisis, resentment towards the president was growing dangerously.

 

---30---

 

 

 

 

[James DiEugenio]

I did not know that Carter denounced it so vociferously.

What a bunch of fruitcakes over there.

A negotiated settlement was not enough, they wanted an invasion.

Not knowing the two sets of tactical nukes on the island.

Edited June 18, 2023 by James DiEugenio

[Ron Ecker]

The problem we had with Castro always reminds me of the Bob Dylan lyrics (I don't remember which song it is) that involved some kind of problem that this fellow had involving a farmer and his daughter Rita.

I had to say something that would strike him pretty weird
So I said "I like Fidel Castro and his beard"
Rita looked offended but she got out of the way
As he came running down the stairs saying "What's that I heard you say?"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Chuck Schwartz]

The titlw of the Dylan song is Motorpsycho Nightmare (from the Another Side of Bob Dylan album )  Here are the lyrics:

"

• I pounded on a farmhouse, lookin' for a place to stay
  I was mighty, mighty tired, I had come a long, long way
  I said, "Hey, hey, in there, is there anybody home?"
  I was standin' on the steps, feelin' most alone
  When out comes a farmer, he must have thought that I was nuts
  He immediately looked at me and stuck a gun into my guts

  I fell down to my bended knees
  Sayin', "I dig farmers, don't shoot me, please"
  He cocked his rifle and began to shout
  "Are you that travelin' salesman that I have heard about?"
  I said, "No, no, no, I'm a doctor and it's true
  I'm a clean-cut kid and I been to college, too"

  Then in comes his daughter whose name was Rita
  She looked like she stepped out of La Dolce Vita
  I immediately tried to cool it with her dad
  And told him what a nice, pretty farm he had
  He said, "What do doctors know about farms, pray tell?"
  I said, "I's born at the bottom of a wishing well"

  Well, by the dirt 'neath my nails I guess he knew I wouldn't lie
  He said, "I guess you're tired," he said it kinda sly
  I said, "Yes, ten thousand miles today I drove"
  He said, "I got a bed for you underneath the stove
  Just one condition an' you can go to sleep right now
  That you don't touch my daughter
  And in the morning, milk the cows"

  I was sleepin' like a rat when I heard something jerkin'
  There stood Rita, lookin' just like Tony Perkins
  She said, "Would you like to take a shower?
  I'll show you up to the door"
  I said, "Oh, no, no, I've been through this before"
  I knew I had to split, but I did not know how
  When she said, "Would you like to take that shower now?"

  Well, I couldn't leave unless the old man chased me out
  'Cause I'd already promised that I'd milk his cows
  I had to say something to strike him very weird
  So I yelled, "I like Fidel Castro and his beard"
  Rita looked offended, but she got out of the way
  As he came chargin' down the stairs
  Sayin', "What's that I heard you say?"

  I said, "I like Fidel Castro, I think you heard me right"
  And I ducked as he swung at me with all his might
  Rita mumbled somethin' 'bout her mother on the hill
  As his fist had hit the icebox, he said he's gonna kill me
  If I don't get out the door in two seconds flat
  "You unpatriotic, rotten doctor, commie rat"

  Well, he threw a Reader's Digest at my head and I did run
  I did a somersault as I seen him get his gun
  And crashed through the window at a hundred miles an hour
  And landed fully blast in his garden flowers
  Rita said, "Come back" and he started to load
  The sun was comin' up and I was runnin' down the road

  Well, I don't figure I'll be back there for a spell
  Even though Rita moved away and got a job at a motel
  He still waits for me, constant, on the sly
  He wants to turn me in to the F.B.I.
  Me, I romp and stomp, thankful as I romp
  Without freedom of speech I might be in the swamp

  Songwriters: Bob Dylan. For non-commercial use only.

  "

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[James DiEugenio]

LOL, nice one Ron. 👋

[Michael Griffith]

On 6/17/2023 at 9:29 PM, Benjamin Cole said:

This will hardly be news to many readers here, but inside the CIA (and within CIA assets, including mercenaries and Cuban exiles) there was a great deal of hostility towards JFK after the BoP.

There were also deep concerns that Latin America would become communist (a large poor population, living under corrupt and often repressive klepto-capitalist governments...what could go wrong?). 

'Bitter Defeat': Top CIA Official Denounced JFK's Resolution of Cuban Missile Crisis 

Deputy director condemned Kennedy for not going to war.

BRAD FOLEY JUN 17

SHARE

Deputy Director of Central Intelligence Marshall Carter was likely not alone in the sentiments he shared with CIA Director John McCone on Oct. 29, 1962.

Key figures in the Cuban Missile Crisis: From left, President John F. Kennedy, Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro and Nikita Khrushchev, premier of the Soviet Union.

On the very day the Cuban Missile Crisis ended peacefully, Carter expressed his frustrations over the outcome in a memorandum sent to CIA Director John McCone:

You will recall in my memorandum to you of 18 October, I stated that if the United States decided to take action (against Castro and the missiles of Cuba) in the limited time available, then its objective must surely be the total destruction of the Castro regime and the installation of a government in Cuba favorable to Western ideology. 

Deputy CIA director Marshall Carter, left; director John McCone, right.

DDCI Carter voiced his displeasure with the deal struck between President John F. Kennedy and Soviet Union Premier Nikita Khrushchev, the latter whom agreed to remove missiles from Cuba if the United States promised not to invade Cuba and eventually remove missiles from Turkey:

The United States was building up to just this sort of definitive, firm action when the Soviets, apparently realizing this, proposed their “trade,” i.e., removal of offensive missile bases in return for guarantee of Castro/Communist/Cuba non-invasion. It appears to many this is quite a victory for the United States — I personally view it as a bitter defeat, if in fact the United States gets sucked into establishing a sanctuary in the Western Hemisphere for Castro, for Communism, or for the Soviet Union. 

In terms of the conditions agreed upon with the Soviets, DDCI Carter felt the U.S. was much worse off than prior to October 1962:

If we are so naive as to give Castro or the Soviets these assurances, then we have in fact sold ourselves down the river and we must be prepared to live with and accept increasing overt encroachments by the Soviet Union in the Western Hemisphere.

After the failed Bay of Pigs invasion and what this top CIA man considered a weak response to the missile crisis, resentment towards the president was growing dangerously.

---30---

As we all know, Carter's expression of bitterness and anger, as sharp as it was, pales in comparison to the sentiments expressed by the CIA officers who worked with the anti-Castro Cubans and by many of the anti-Castro Cubans themselves. 

One can certainly raise valid objections to JFK's refusal to provide sufficient support to Brigade 2506 after the invasion started to flounder, but all rational persons must applaud JFK's handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis. 

[Matt Allison]

 

[Larry Hancock]

I'm going to do this one more time...well probably more since few seem to listen to my objections on this subject.  I document in my book In Denial, from actual government records, that JFK violated a number of guidelines JFK himself had set before the landings at the BOP - new orders issued to try and support the Brigade while they were on the beach.   He allowed American pilots to fly bombing and ground attack strikes in Brigade aircraft, he authorized extended night time air drops to supply the beachhead with American personnel in the transports  - and actually approved Air Force transports to carry out resupply missions, the CIA was just too unprepared to handle it.  He authorized ground attack strikes with American aircraft to cover the evacuation of the Brigade - he had ordered plans for that before the landings - but the Navy had not prepared any such plans, the Brigade had not been prepared for such an eventuality and the Navy screwed up the timing of the air strike so badly it was totally ineffective (and so late that the American pilots over the beach in Brigade aircraft were shot down). 

This does not even go into other orders that he gave which would have prevented the disaster but which the CIA officers appear simply to have ignored - or as an alternative, Bissell never passed them on to those officers.

This goes along with my other post about historiography being necessary to correct what initially goes into the "establishment" histories. 

[Cliff Varnell]

3 hours ago, Larry Hancock said:

This does not even go into other orders that he gave which would have prevented the disaster but which the CIA officers appear simply to have ignored - or as an alternative, Bissell never passed them on to those officers.

Looks like Richard Bissell actively sought the failure of the BOP.  Why would he ignore the lack of air cover after the D-Day-2 failure to take out Castro's Air Force, and ignore the lack of preparation for a “popular uprising” — both required for success?

Tapped for Skull & Bones during his senior year at Yale, Bissell turned them down.  He started his gov’t career as a protege of W. Averell Harriman (Skull & Bones, Brown Brothers Harriman).

During Eisenhower’s second term, Joe Kennedy and Robert Lovett (Skull & Bones, Brown Brothers Harriman) tried to get Ike to fire Dulles.

https://cryptome.org/0001/bruce-lovett.htm

Harriman was a big supporter of Dulles, having once hired both Dulles brothers as “his lawyers,” according to Harriman’s biography.

Upon JFK’s election, Joe advised his son to give Lovett any cabinet post he wanted.  Lovett wanted to stay in the “kitchen cabinet” and recommended Dean Rusk for State, McGeorge Bundy (Skull & Bones) for National Security Advisor, Robert McNamara for Defense, and C Douglas Dillon for Treasury.

Are we to believe Joe Kennedy and Robert Lovett forgot about their desire to get rid of Dulles after taking power?

I’m convinced the murder of Patrice Lumumba in the Congo three days before the Inauguration cost Dulles Harriman’s support.

Looks to me like the real object of the BOP was to get rid of Dulles, not Castro.

 

Edited July 25, 2023 by Cliff Varnell

[Larry Hancock]

Bissell's actions are perplexing, I wrestle with them a good deal in the book and the CIA's own IG study (which was suppressed at the time and which we only see echos of in the later releases CIA historians study) did the same - coming down largely on the side of pure management incompetence and a refusal to take advice from professionals such as his own military advisors. The IG also argued that the entire area of logistics (as the JCS staff study had pointed out in advance) for support of the landing was totally inadequate. 

Two things that stand out are:

a) Bissell was way over his head in terms of military experience - he might have been the right pick at the time the project started, when it was supposed to be a replay of the minimalist Guatemalan project and never anticipated anything beyond infiltrating a small guerilla force to lead an on island guerilla operation which would trigger a coup. When that effort failed circa October 1960 and the whole project was totally changed into a full fledged conventional amphibious operation he had no experience at all and didn't take the advice he got even from the Marine officer assigned to the project - and the one single Navy advisor brought into the project showed up only in the last three months of preparations.  It all feels like hubris but of course might have been something more complex. 

b) He did  have some really bad luck.  He and the Navy admiral supporting the operation appear to have had a plan to stage a false flag attack on Guantanamo which would have triggered a full scale, two carrier assault in response - something which would have overwhelmed Castro's forces.  Its pretty clear JFK was never told anything about it and it seemingly failed due to an accident with the explosives which were being taken out of Guantanamo to use in the attack.  Beyond that the poison attack on Castro might well have succeeded, it was only aborted by the sequestration of the CRC leadership by Hunt.  And finally, as bad luck had would have it, the possibility of  an island wide uprising was gutted only weeks before by a leak which had caused an extensive round up of the leaders of multiple coup oriented groups. 

The whole story is even more complex than that but certainly a perfect storm was occurring at Bissell's level of command and JFK had no insight at all to it - nor did the officers under Bissell's command, much less the Brigade Cuban leadership.

 

[Cliff Varnell]

1 hour ago, Larry Hancock said:

Bissell's actions are perplexing, I wrestle with them a good deal in the book and the CIA's own IG study (which was suppressed at the time and which we only see echos of in the later releases CIA historians study) did the same - coming down largely on the side of pure management incompetence

Doesn’t the dirty end of the incompetence stick also point to Foggy Bottom, the Pentagon, the National Security Council and the Oval Office?

Rusk bitched about the size of the project right up to the meeting where the plan was green-lit and he went along.

1 hour ago, Larry Hancock said:

. The whole story is even more complex than that but certainly a perfect storm was occurring at Bissell's level of command and JFK had no insight at all to it - nor did the officers under Bissell's command, much less the Brigade Cuban leadership.

Bissell did well after the BOP.

His wiki:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_M._Bissell_Jr.

As a face-saving exit from the CIA, John F. Kennedy offered Bissell the post as director of a new science and technology department. This would leave him in charge of the development of the Lockheed A-12, the new spy plane that would make the U-2 obsolete. Bissell turned down the offer and in February 1962 he left the Central Intelligence Agency and was replaced as head of the Directorate for Plans, by Richard Helms.

Bissell became head of the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) in 1962. IDA was a Pentagon think tank set up to evaluate weapons systems. Later he worked for United Technologies in Hartford, Connecticut (1964–74), which supplied weapons systems. He also worked as a consultant for the Ford Foundation.

</q>

[Larry Hancock]

My impression is that Bissell did not do as well as his ambitions had led him - his hubris was immense, he wanted to be Director. And he was in direct competition with Helms for the job - Helms was smart, saw what a mess the Cuba Project was getting into early and backed away to give Bissell his head and bet he would do himself in, as he did.

As for me, its no secret I don't go in for large scale conspiracy so I can absolutely see Bissell failing all on his own, being totally out of his depth and range of experience but never admitting it  (a flawed wonder kid somewhat like McNamara in a way).  But that's just me of course...

[Cliff Varnell]

1 hour ago, Larry Hancock said:

My impression is that Bissell did not do as well as his ambitions had led him - his hubris was immense, he wanted to be Director. And he was in direct competition with Helms for the job - Helms was smart, saw what a mess the Cuba Project was getting into early and backed away to give Bissell his head and bet he would do himself in, as he did.

As for me, its no secret I don't go in for large scale conspiracy so I can absolutely see Bissell failing all on his own, being totally out of his depth and range of experience but never admitting it  (a flawed wonder kid somewhat like McNamara in a way).  But that's just me of course...

Larry, your work is vastly appreciated.  My critique of the JFKA Critical Community does not extend to you.

The “street” in me can absolutely see in the BOP an operation to take out Allen Dulles.

Joe Kennedy soon after the BOP: . "I know that outfit, and I wouldn't pay them a hundred bucks a week. It's a lucky thing they were found out early."

https://www.historyextra.com/period/20th-century/bay-of-pigs-invasion-kennedys-cuban-catastrophe/

<quote on>

That the United States had been behind the operation was soon reported by the press and revealed in the United Nations. Unaccustomed to setbacks in what had so far been a charmed political life, Kennedy was devastated by the Bay of Pigs disaster. An adviser who peeped into the White House bedroom as the operation was failing observed JFK crying in the arms of his wife Jackie. He called his father for advice every hour, yet did not receive the paternal support he had anticipated. “Oh hell,” Joseph Kennedy told his son,“if that’s the way you feel, give the job to Lyndon [Vice President Johnson].”

<quote off>

Joe Kennedy thought it was a lucky thing.  He would have known...

Edited July 25, 2023 by Cliff Varnell

[Larry Hancock]

Thanks Cliff, obviously I can't say somebody did not have an agenda to get rid of Dulles - and essentially break the strangle hold that the Dulles brothers had on US policy during the fifties.

I did forget to mention two really strange things about Bissell and the project though.

First, if he had run the program the way he had the Guatemala project, making full use of American covert air and naval assets and bringing off an uprising by September it would have had a good chance at least of triggering a major insurgency and if not overthrowing Castro at least destabilizing his regime. But Bissell essentially threw away the playbook and decided that Cuban exiles had to do everything on their own...when that delayed the project past the point of no return the landing was essentially a hail Mary.

But Eisenhower had even given him a last out,  in December/January, after the election Ike twice proposed that the CIA stage a quick false flag that would allow him to send in the US military before JFK took office - there appears to have been no response at all to that offer from Bissell.

[Cliff Varnell]

1 hour ago, Larry Hancock said:

Thanks Cliff, obviously I can't say somebody did not have an agenda to get rid of Dulles - and essentially break the strangle hold that the Dulles brothers had on US policy during the fifties.

I did forget to mention two really strange things about Bissell and the project though.

First, if he had run the program the way he had the Guatemala project, making full use of American covert air and naval assets and bringing off an uprising by September it would have had a good chance at least of triggering a major insurgency and if not overthrowing Castro at least destabilizing his regime. But Bissell essentially threw away the playbook and decided that Cuban exiles had to do everything on their own...when that delayed the project past the point of no return the landing was essentially a hail Mary.

But Eisenhower had even given him a last out,  in December/January, after the election Ike twice proposed that the CIA stage a quick false flag that would allow him to send in the US military before JFK took office - there appears to have been no response at all to that offer from Bissell.

Perhaps he got a better offer — one he couldn’t refuse.