JFK DISCUSSES BAY OF PIGS FAILURE WITH IKE AT CAMP DAVID
Camp David, Maryland (JFK+50) President John F. Kennedy met with former President Dwight D. Eisenhower at the Camp David presidential retreat on Saturday, April 22, 1961. The topic of discussion was the recent Bay of Pigs failure.
Jim Rasenberger writes that Ike was less consoling than JFK probably expected. The former president peppered Kennedy with questions. Were all opposing views aired in pre-invasion meetings? Were changes made to the initial plans approved by the Joint Chiefs? If so, why?
President Kennedy was very defensive about his intent to keep the role of the United States in the invasion of Cuba a secret. Ike asked, "How could you expect the world to believe that we had nothing to do with it?"
Eisenhower left the meeting at Camp David feeling his successor was a "bewildered" man. Ike went to his grave convinced that as President he had never given approval for an invasion of Cuba. Ike would only acknowledge that he had "merely approved a program."
As for President Kennedy, by May his mood had vastly improved thanks to a recent Gallup poll that had his approval rating at 82%. JFK said...
"It's just like Eisenhower, the worse I do, the more popular I get."
SOURCE
"Brilliant Disaster: JFK, Castro and America's Doomed Invasion of Cuba's Bay of Pigs," by Jim Rasenberger, Scribner, New York, 2011.
JFK & Ike Meet at Camp David
April 22, 1961
Photo by Robert Knudsen
JFK Library Image
Camp David, Maryland (JFK+50) President John F. Kennedy met with former President Dwight D. Eisenhower at the Camp David presidential retreat on Saturday, April 22, 1961. The topic of discussion was the recent Bay of Pigs failure.
Jim Rasenberger writes that Ike was less consoling than JFK probably expected. The former president peppered Kennedy with questions. Were all opposing views aired in pre-invasion meetings? Were changes made to the initial plans approved by the Joint Chiefs? If so, why?
President Kennedy was very defensive about his intent to keep the role of the United States in the invasion of Cuba a secret. Ike asked, "How could you expect the world to believe that we had nothing to do with it?"
Eisenhower left the meeting at Camp David feeling his successor was a "bewildered" man. Ike went to his grave convinced that as President he had never given approval for an invasion of Cuba. Ike would only acknowledge that he had "merely approved a program."
As for President Kennedy, by May his mood had vastly improved thanks to a recent Gallup poll that had his approval rating at 82%. JFK said...
"It's just like Eisenhower, the worse I do, the more popular I get."
SOURCE
"Brilliant Disaster: JFK, Castro and America's Doomed Invasion of Cuba's Bay of Pigs," by Jim Rasenberger, Scribner, New York, 2011.
JFK & Ike Meet at Camp David
April 22, 1961
Photo by Robert Knudsen
JFK Library Image
