Page 118 - Gobierno ivisible

Date: 4/5/2011 Page: 118 of 237

THE INVISIBLE GOVERNMENT -- THE KENNEDY SHAKE-UP

THE CIA emerged from the coup in Guatemala with a reputation in the Invisible Government as a clever and
efficient operator in Latin American affairs. And despite the agency's subsequent difficulties in other areas of the
world, that reputation was essentially untarnished when President Kennedy took office in January of 1961.

When the invasion failed, however, a sharp reaction set in. A few days after the Bay of Pigs, President Kennedy
called in Clark M. Clifford, a Washington lawyer and close confidant who later became the chairman of the
President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. Kennedy complained that he had been given bad information
and bad advice by his intelligence and military advisers. "I was in the Pacific," said the ex-PT boat skipper. "I
know something about these things. How could they have put all the ammunition in one ship or two ships?"

Referring to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the President told another visitor: "They don't know any more about it than
anyone else." He vowed to shake the intelligence community from top to bottom. He was determined that the Bay
of Pigs would not happen again. "One more," he stated ruefully, "will sink me."

The President then set out to gain control of the intelligence establishment and to make it genuinely submissive to
his ideas and purposes. As a first order of business, he decided to conduct an extensive investigation of the Cuban
debacle.

"We intend to profit from this lesson," he told the American Society of Newspaper Editors on April 20, the day
after the invasion collapsed. "We intend to re-examine and reorient our forces of all kinds -- our tactics and our
institutions here in this community. We intend to intensify our efforts for a struggle in many ways more difficult
than war."

At his news conference the next day, the President declined to get into details about the Bay of Pigs on the
grounds that it would not "aid the interest of the United States." But he denied any desire to "conceal
responsibility ... I'm the responsible officer of the government," Kennedy declared, "and that is quite obvious."

But in this moment of extreme political vulnerability, high administration officials began to point out in private
post-mortems with reporters that Kennedy had inherited the Bay of Pigs idea from President Eisenhower.

On April 23, Interior Secretary Stewart L. Udall made the mistake of giving public voice to the administration
line, and the Republicans, predictably, pounced upon him.

"Here was a plan conceived by one administration," Udall declared. "This from all I can find out began over a
year ago and President Eisenhower directed it."

"Cheap and vicious partisanship," retorted Richard M. Nixon.

Kennedy stepped in quickly the next day to prevent all-out political war. He told Pierre Salinger to issue a public
statement.

"President Kennedy has stated from the beginning," Salinger declared, "that as President he bears sole
responsibility for the events of the past days. He has stated on all occasions, and he restates it now, so it will be
understood by all. The President is strongly opposed to anyone within or without the administration attempting to
shift the responsibility."