FEARED EXILE ATTACK ON CENTRAL AMERICA CIA MAN IN BAY OF PIGS GAVE WARNING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000100250039-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 16, 1999
• Sequence Number: 39
• Publication Date: July 21, 1965
• Content Type: NSPR

Sanitized - Approved For R aVI: -RDI?7
E-- FTERALD--TRIBUNr-
Feared[: Exile. Attack on ; Central' Arei.?ica
by David Wise ew, r. at the Bay of Pigs. Training came the U. s.,role was seep.,
Washington BureauChiel Bissell said: "We did warn of'the exilic had commenced _ing.out.
more than once that there. under President Eisenhower. ?i In the Star interview, Mr.-
0PYRGH1J'ASHINGTON? .would be a 'very -difficult According to the Star Inter- Bissell; is quoted ' as saying
? problem with this armed, 'view, Mr. Bissell feels that: U.S. officials , miscalculated.,
(ran the 1961' Bay of pigs.inn- highly motivated unit in case President Kennedy's decision 'the chances of keeping tale ?f
j'vasion for the Central Intelli- the operation were canceled. ?to cancel a second air strike U. S. role in the invasion'
I gence Agency, said yesterday. We had no final plan, of what by exile B-26 bombers against: secret. "The hope existed that would become of it.? plausibly di
that the armed Cuban exile.
Premier Castro's airfields it could be
brigade might have tried to "They '(the exiles) were the., 'might have made a "critical- claimed by, the U. 6. governs
seize territory . In. Central most powerful military force.' difference" in the outcome of, ,ment," he said.
America if it had not been s between Mexico and Panama, .the invasion, The star said Mr. ,Bissell is
sent to invade Cuba. and it is entirely possible that "if we had been able to, "conviuced that the U. S. will!
they mi
ht h
t
i
a_ __-__ - _ ._
g
ave
r
ed
might have, lest control of,
the, Cuban exiles If President'
Kennedy had canceled the In-
vasion,, and that ? the intelli-
gence agency warned of this ;
possibility, had not been made
publicly before. Mr. Bissell
spoke out in a lengthy copy-.
righted interview in The!.
Washington Evening Star.
The, account was the latest
in a spate of stories that have'.
revived debate over. the dis-
astrous Cuban invasion, the
worst setback of the Kennedy
administration. On, Monday,
historian Arthur M. ' Schles-
inger jr., wrote about the Bay
of Pigs in Life magazine. To-,
morrow Theodore C. Soren-
sea will give his yersion in
Look magazine. Both men are '
former assistants to Mr. Ken-, nedy, and both accounts are',''
fairs of other' countries with
some frequency in the future."?
The Star also published for,'
the 'first - time a. picture; of
Mr. Bissell receiving the na-
tional security medal from
President Kennedy in April,:
1962.: IL! had previously bceit
reported. that Mr. Bissell re-
ceived a medal when he left,
the -CIA, but there was not
announcement at The tine..
White' House officials said
.12 national security medals;
out that 'only about half of
the recipients have been pub.'i
hriv, friarMA.A
I' Publish. -this fall', ?.a:,.?aa ?, aava, ~u u-;
ade the south coajt of Cuba
'Sanitized-Approved For. Release : CiA-RDP-75,-00001 R IU0100250039-8
a base in Nicaragua, Honduras of bombs on Castro's airfields,
or Guatemala; There is not the we' would have had a damned
slightest doubt that they could good chance
" he- said in the
,
have defeated any Guatemalan interview. Mr. Schlesinger
force." wrote that the President's dc-
It 'was the second time Mr. cision to cancel the 'second
Bissell had broken silence strike was "an error," but not
since he resigned from the CIA : The Exile B-2-6 Bombers
In February, 1962, during '.the took off Nicaragua and' at-
shakeup that followed the Bay ti' tacked Castro's Air Bases in
of Pigs invasion. On May 4, he .the first strike: A. CIA "Cover
was' Interviewed on an NBC- - story," announced in Miami,
TV documentary "The Science said it was the work-of pilots
of Spying." : defecting inside Cuba, Picsi-
The ' former CIA Deputy dent ' Kennedy. canceled the
Director. for Plans, who second strike,. scheduled for
directed the 'U-2 program for f the day: of the'invasion,,'be?
the intelligence agency, was
ne - is an executive of the a
United Aircraft Corp.
The.exile force he spoke' ofV
as trained clandestinely '?In`!
uatemala by the CIA, and l
o '~ 'Q .?