"IKE PEPPERED JFK WITH QUESTIONS"

JFK MEETS WITH IKE AFTER BAY OF PIGS FAILURE

Camp David, Maryland (JFK+50) On April 22, 1961, President John F. Kennedy conferred with former president Dwight D. Eisenhower here at Camp David.  The meeting took place just days after the ill-fated invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs.

According to Jim Rasenberger, Ike "peppered Kennedy with questions."

Were all opposing views aired in pre-invasion meetings?

Were changes made to the initial plans and if so, why?

Did the Joint Chiefs approve of the changes?

When President Kennedy expressed the necessity of keeping the role of the United States in the invasion secret, Mr. Eisenhower responded...

"How could you expect the world to believe that we had nothing to do with it?"

SOURCE

"Brilliant Disaster:  JFK, Castro and America's Doomed Invasion of Cuba," by Jim Rasenberger, Scribner, New York, 2011.

 

 

JFK & Eisenhower Meeting

Camp David, MD

April 22 1961

Photo by Robert Knudsen

JFK Library Image

BAY OF PIGS POWS RELEASED

BAY OF PIGS POWS RELEASED

Havana, Cuba (JFK+50) Fifty-two years ago today, December 23, 1962,  just two days before Christmas Day, Premier Fidel Castro released prisoners captured during the ill-fated invasion at the Bay of Pigs in mid-April 1961.

According to Jim Rasenberger, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy met on June 20, 1962 with members of the Cuban Families Committee in New York City where he discussed the problem of raising money to pay Castro's ransom.

RFK then met with James B. Donovan*, a New York attorney who had negotiated the release of captured U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers from the USSR, on July 2nd.  Donovan was dispatched to Cuba where he met with Castro for four hours on August 31, 1962.

Donovan explained to Castro that $62 million in cash was not a possibility, but offered food and medicine instead.  Castro, recognizing the importance of these commodities to his people, accepted the offer in the value amount equaling $52 million in addition to $2.9 million in cash for sixty POWS that had already been released.

The October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis put a temporary cog in the deal, but after the crisis was resolved with JFK's popularity at a high mark and the physical condition of the POWS deteriorating, negotiations were quickly back on track.

In a speech to win support from the American Pharmaceutical Association on December 7, RFK said...

"My brother made a mistake.  These men fought well, the disaster was no fault of theirs.  They are our responsibility."

200 corporations gave something--the total included $23 million in pharmaceuticals, $7 million in surgical and dental supplies, $9 million in powdered milk and $14 million in baby food.

Throughout the negotiations, RFK was "a constant presence, cajoling and mollifying contributors as necessary," but it was not Robert Kennedy who brokered the deal...it was Jim Donovan.

The Attorney General did raise the $2.9 million paid to Castro, one-third coming as a result of "a single phone call" to Richard Cardinal Cushing of Boston.

The Royal Bank of Canada issued a check for the total amount to its branch in Havana and the check was quickly in Castro's hands.  The planes bearing the POWS landed at Miami International Airport on Christmas Eve.

1,163 members of the Exile Brigade had been released and Jim Donovan also "secured the departure of some 3500 of their relatives."

*James B. Donovan (1916-1970) was a graduate of Harvard.  He served as legal council for the Office of Strategic Services during WWII.  He was assistant trial counsel in the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial and presented the filmed evidence of Nazi atrocities against the Jews.  

JBD ran unsuccessfully for the US Senate in 1962 and became president of Pratt Institute (art school) in New York.

Negotiator: The Life and Career

of James B. Donovan

by Philip J. Bigger (2006)

SOURCES

"Brilliant Disaster:  JFK, Castro and America's Doomed Invasion of Cuba's Bay of Pigs," by Jim Rasenberger, Scribner (Simon and Schuster, Inc), New York, 2011.

"US-Cuban Diplomacy, 'Nation' Style," by Peter Kornbluh, The Nation, April 29, 2013. 

www.jamesbdonovan.com

POWs of the Bay of Pigs

www.latinamerican.studies.org

TRUMAN APPOINTS WWII AMNESTY BOARD

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On December 23, 1946 President Harry S Truman appointed an amnesty board to review the cases of those imprisoned for refusal to serve the United States in the Second World War.

The 15,000 cases involved men who were drafted into the service but refused to serve in any capacity, combatant or otherwise.

The President wanted the board to review individual cases to determine if any were unjustly punished and would be eligible for presidential pardon.

The board reported back one year later that 1500 of the 15,000 cases merited "full amnesty."  They included those belonging to pacifist religious groups.  On December 23, 1947, President Truman granted a pardon in these cases and restored political and civil rights to those so pardoned.

            President Harry S. Truman

BAY OF PIGS

DISASTER AT THE BAY OF PIGS 53 YEARS AGO TODAY

Bahia de Conchinos, Cuba (JFK+50) A force of 1400 Cuban exiles landed at the Bay of Pigs on the southern coast of Cuba 53 years ago today, April 17, 1961.

The exile force, known as Brigade 2506, trained in Guatemala and was led by Jose Miro Cardona, head of the anti-Castro Cuban Revolutionary Council.

The brigade came under heavy fire from Fidel Castro's army as they hit the beach.

The invasion, planned by the United States Central Intelligence Agency, had been approved by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and was continued  by the new president, John F. Kennedy.

The invasion, the purpose of which was to overthrow communist dictator Fidel Castro, was hampered by bad weather and a shortage of ammunition.

The CIA plan called for two air strikes on Castro's air bases.  The first strike failed and left most of the Cuban Air Force intact.

JFK, fearing United States involvement in the invasion would become publicly known and a possible escalation into a nuclear confrontation with the USSR, cancelled the second planned air strike.

20,000 of Castro's forces killed 100 of the invaders and captured 1200.

The POWS were held for 20 months while the Kennedy administration worked for their release.

On December 29, 1962, in Miami's Orange Bowl, President and Mrs. Kennedy welcomed the exiles to the United States.

           President and Mrs. Kennedy
                      Miami, Florida
                  December 29, 1962
                  JFK Library Photo

President Kennedy publicly accepted full responsibility for the failure saying...

"I am the responsible officer of the government."

The Bay of Pigs fiasco has been included in the TOP TEN of presidential mistakes.

In one of the best and most recent accounts of the Bay of Pigs, "Brilliant Disaster," Jim Rasenberger writes...

"Long before his death, John Kennedy's presidency was transformed by the Bay of Pigs.  There were...tactical changes (such as) tightening  of the inner circle, increasing reliance on (Bobby Kennedy), the skepticism regarding the advice of military and intelligence advisers...and broader policy changes that escalated the Cold War."

As far as JFK's role in the Bay of Pigs, Rasenberger says that President Kennedy...

"could not easily halt the operation (but saw) the potential for serious repercussions if he went ahead."

In regard to the CIA's view going in, Rasenberger asks....

"Did the CIA (expect) the president to eventually make US military support available to the brigade?"

He answers...

"Almost certainly."

Further insight is provided by a quote from Nobel Laureate Gunnan Myrdal who described JFK's position this way...

"If Kennedy had called (the invasion) off, he would have been ruined politically at home, but if he had engaged American forces to salvage a failing covert operation, he would have been ruined abroad."

But what if the invasion had succeeded?

Clayton Fritchey believes the United States "would have been an occupying force in Cuba faced with...house to house" fighting in Havana which would have brought resentment of the United States in Latin America.

Interestingly, Rasenberger concludes....

"The peculiar truth may be that the result Kennedy got was the VERY BEST he could have desired.

If he achieved this result accidentally, then he was lucky.  If he achieved it intentionally...then he deserves a place as one of the most coldly calculating presidents in history."

SOURCE

"The Brilliant Disaster, JFK, Castro and America's Doomed Invasion of Cuba's Bay of Pigs," Jim Rasenberger, Scribner, New York, 2011.