January 28, 2013
JFK DISCUSSED CUBA WITH NATIONAL SECURITY TEAM 52 YEARS AGO TODAY
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) President John F. Kennedy met with Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, CIA Director Allen Dulles, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff 52 years ago today, January 28, 1961.
It was just 8 days after JFK was inaugurated.
The meeting, called by the President, took place in the Cabinet Room at the White House.
The subject of the meeting was the situation in Cuba.
CIA Director Allen Dulles* reported that Cuba was a communist controlled state & that Premier Fidel Castro was in the process of building up his military.
Dulles also reported that there was increasing opposition to the Castro regime on the island & that his agency was in the process of giving military training to anti-Castro Cuban exiles.
As the meeting ended, it was agreed that the CIA would continue its activities in regard to Cuba & the Department of Defense would review proposals for the active deployment of anti-Castro Cuban forces in Cuban territory.
*Allen Welsh Dulles (1893-1969)
was born in Watertown, NY. His older brother, John Foster Dulles, was Ike's Secretary of State. His grandfather had been Secretary of State for Benjamin Harrison.
Allen Dulles graduated from Princeton & became a diplomat. He was chief adviser to NY Governor Thomas E. Dewey in his unsuccessful 1948 presidential campaign against Harry Truman.
In 1953, Dulles was appointed by President Eisenhower as director of the CIA, a position he held until Sept 1961 when JFK forced his resignation after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion.
LBJ appointed Dulles to serve on the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Dulles died at his home in Georgetown.
Allen W. Dulles
CIA Director
(1953-1961)
SOURCE
White House Document (declassified) issued by McGeorge Bundy, National Security Advisor
