Page 214 - Gobierno ivisible

Date: 4/5/2011 Page: 214 of 237

THE INVISIBLE GOVERNMENT -- THE 1960 CAMPAIGN -- AND NOW

UNKNOWN to the American people, the Bay of Pigs invasion plan played a crucial role in the 1960 presidential
campaign.

Despite the fact that millions of persons watched the four televised debates between Richard M. Nixon and John
F. Kennedy, the voters went to the polls without knowing the secret reasons for the public positions the candidates
took on Cuba. Behind the scenes, on both sides, there was deep concern over the pending CIA invasion.

To understand the secret drama that unfolded inside the Nixon and Kennedy camps in 1960 over the planned
invasion, one must go back to a tradition that began in 1944.

In that year, wartime intelligence reports were made available to Thomas E. Dewey, the Republican presidential
candidate, by President Roosevelt. Mr. Dewey received similar information in 1948. In 1957. President Truman
made CIA data available to General Eisenhower and to Adlai Stevenson.

In 1956, following what by now had become an established custom, Eisenhower arranged CIA briefings for
Stevenson. And in 1960 Eisenhower sent identical telegrams on July 18 to Kennedy and to Senator Lyndon
Johnson, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, offering them "periodic briefings on the international scene
from a responsible official in the Central Intelligence Agency ... Because of the secret character of the
information that would be furnished you," said Eisenhower "it would be exclusively for your personal
knowledge."

Kennedy and Johnson accepted Eisenhower's offer. On July 23 Allen Dulles, then Director of Central Intelligence
flew to Hyannis with two aides, James Brooke and Gate Lloyd. The CIA men arrived in an Aero Commander that
had the markings of a private plane. Brooke and Lloyd carried secret papers in two slim dispatch cases.

In a two-and-a-half-hour conversation at Senator Kennedy's summer home, on the brick terrace overlooking
Nantucket Sound, Dulles briefed the Democratic presidential candidate on what Kennedy described afterward to
reporters as "a good many serious problems around the world." Kennedy said these had been discussed "in detail'
and indicated particular emphasis had been placed on Cuba and Africa.

On July 27 Dulles flew to the LBJ Ranch in Texas and remained overnight to brief Johnson. Dulles briefed
Kennedy once more during the campaign, on September 19.

A few days after this second briefing, in a reply published on September 23 to a series of questions from the
Scripps Howard newspapers, Kennedy said: "The forces fighting for freedom in exile and in the mountains of
Cuba should be sustained and assisted ..." [2]

Then, on October 6, in Cincinnati, Kennedy delivered his major speech on Cuba. "Hopefully," he said, "events
may once again bring us an opportunity to bring our influence strongly to bear on behalf of the cause of freedom
in Cuba." Meantime, he called for "encouraging those liberty-loving Cubans who are leading the resistance to
Castro." [3]

These sentiments were making the Nixon camp increasingly edgy. Nixon and his aides did not know exactly how
much, if anything, Kennedy knew about the invasion plan. They did not know if Dulles had told him about it.
They certainly did not want the Democratic candidate to be able to claim credit for an invasion that might be
launched by a Republican President. It was President Eisenhower, after all, who had ordered the CIA to arm and