KENNEDY MEETS WITH CABINET, CIA DIRECTOR & JOINT CHIEFS ON SITUATION IN CUBA
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On January 28, 1961, President John F. Kennedy met with his cabinet, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. The meeting took place in the Cabinet Room in the West Wing of the White House.
The subject of the meeting was CUBA.
Allen Dulles* reported that the island nation, 90 miles off the coast of Florida, was a communist state under Fidel Castro who was in the process of building up the Cuban military. Dulles said that there was some opposition to the Castro regime and the Agency was giving military training to anti-Castro Cubans.
It was agreed that the CIA would continue its activities in regard to Cuba and that the Department of Defense would review proposals to deploy the anti-Castro forces.
JFK inherited the CIA plan approved by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to train anti-Castro Cubans to launch an invasion and overthrow Castro. President Kennedy supported the plan and the invasion was launched on April 17, 1961 at the Bay of Pigs.
*Allen Welsh Dulles (1893-1969) was born in Watertown, NY & graduated from Princeton University. AWD was an adviser to Gov Thomas E. Dewey of New York & was appointed CIA Director in 1953 by President Eisenhower.
