WE SHOULD LEARN FROM THE PAST

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000200130007-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 30, 1999
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: February 8, 1964
• Content Type: NSPR

~fi E1iVS
STATINTL
Approved For Release 1999/09/17 CIA-RDP75-00149R000200
8 1964
FEB ?
The Best News.daper U .der The Sun
a Pulitzer Prize For. International Reporting It.. 1963
o Pulitzer Prize For National Reporting In 1959
sa Pulitzer Prize For Pni',lic Service in 1939
sacs M. Cox, Jr. Daniel J. Mahone,-; Jr. tl%ifliatat t . a aors
Publisher and President '.:c. President Editor
J Lockett Yawn, Jr. Clarice Asst. C. Edward Pic ce
General Manager Associate Editor' 3ianoging Editor
A Saturday, Feb. 8, 196 ~Yrx 68th Year, No. 256
I LETTERS
Ve Should. .earn
-'.4 711
CPYRGH O U The Past
To he Editnr:
take issue with your view of this week's NBC Whi'c
1 e~ , Cuba: Bay of Pigs, for three reasons. Firstly, the
p ro;:ram was not a vigorous denunciation of the CIA as you
rtiopr.rt it in nave been, fn April, '1961, the public,was told that
P:.: .dent Kennedy lifted air support from the invasioi} plans
ae of no intelligence establishmeri report that the Cuban
people would rise up against Fidel Castro at the first sign of
Ire,o o the beach, The program reported that no one in
PYR6FivT~hington ever expected such a popular revolt and
:,t these hopes did not enter into any p!4ns for support of
.1! exile invasion.
Secondly, the program described not ;u much the failure
of the CIA as it did the failure of President Kennedy's judg-
ment in withdrawing air support. It is inconceivable that a
military man would have advised him to enter into an am-
phibious invasion without air power.
Thirdly, there can be nothing wrong iii soul-searching
thnn-lh our errors. Santavana says that unless we learn from
to ,iave a penchant for forgetting the unforgettable, for forgiving
the unforgivable, and for ignoring the beast in our massive
sya em that makes such disasters as the Bay of Pigs hideous
probabilities in this our precarious present.
The brilliantly done, hour-long "rehash" may have been
;iast old hat to some of us, but to others it was a well-placed
last best hope for mankind, it is only by a tenuous and some-'
times slipping grasp.
Approved For Release 1999/09/17 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000200130007-2