Page 11 - Gobierno ivisible

Date: 4/5/2011 Page: 11 of 237

defend the administration.) Only his closest advisers were aware of exactly how delicate and difficult a position
Stevenson was in. Although the idea later gained currency that Stevenson had been totally unaware of the Bay of
Pigs operation, they knew the real background:

Initially, Stevenson had become aware of Cuban exile training from newspaper stories. Some time before the
invasion, he had expressed some misgivings about these published reports in an informal conversation with
President Kennedy, which took place in the White House living quarters. Kennedy assured Stevenson on that
occasion that whatever happened, United States armed forces would not be used in any Cuban operation.

A couple of days before the April 15 raid, a high CIA official had come to see Stevenson in New York. He was
Tracy Barnes, the CIA man assigned to keep the State Department informed of the Bay of Pigs plans as they
progressed.

Barnes, in briefing Stevenson, indicated vaguely that the United States would not be involved in any Cuban exile
operation. Barnes talked on about how the Cubans were operating from abandoned airfields; he mentioned the
exile (CIA) radio on Swan Island in the Caribbean. Stevenson was aware that Barnes was from the CIA; and the
more he listened to Barnes's ambiguous assurances, the more convinced he became that the United States was
involved.

Barnes did not mention that an invasion was about to begin over the weekend. Nor did he indicate that one was
imminent. As a result, it is possible that Stevenson did not immediately connect the April 15 bombings with the
CIA man's briefing of two days earlier. Nevertheless, he chose his words carefully:

Two aircraft had landed in Florida that morning. "These pilots, and certain other crew members," said Stevenson,
"have apparently defected from Castro's tyranny."

"No United States personnel participated. No United States Government airplanes of any kind participated. These
two planes, to the best of our knowledge, were Castro's own airforce planes, and according to the pilots, they took
off from Castro's own airforce fields."

Stevenson then held aloft a UPI photograph of Zuniga's plane. "I have here a picture of one of these planes. It has
the markings of the Castro air force right on the tail, which everyone can see for himself. The Cuban star and the
initials FAR -- Fuerza Aerea Revolucionaria -- are clearly visible."

"Let me read the statement which has just arrived over the wire from the pilot who landed in Miami," Stevenson
said. He then repeated Zuniga's cover story in its entirety.

Steps had been taken to impound the Cuban planes that had landed in Florida, he added; they would not be
permitted to take off.

The UN meeting broke up at 4:05 P.M.

***

Spring is in many ways the loveliest time of the year in the rolling hills of the Virginia hunt country. But on
Sunday, April 16, President Kennedy had little time to appreciate it. At his Glen Ora estate in Middleburg, the
President was deeply worried. And he did not like what he saw in his Sunday New York Times.