PRESIDENT'S POST-CUBA DECISIONS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70-00058R000200110043-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 24, 1999
• Sequence Number: 43
• Publication Date: November 26, 1961
• Content Type: NSPR

WASHINGTON A. NOV 2 G 1961
Approved For Release 1999/09/16 : CIA-RDP70-00058
STATINTL
WILLIAM S. WHITE
President's Post-ciba Decisions
Full Weight of the Office Believe4 The forthcoming review of
our intelligence operations
Now Felt as He Seeks Sol utior i ',y and- '% ^capa city Q t ?n fight
h
o
o die
John F. 'Kennedy is now auvisera W
,?~ ",dered as a mournful autopsy
feeling for the first time the men." But he is turning rr`ore ..vei the past. It was ordered
full chill loneliness of that ? and more to those who r
terrible and unsharable ul- first of all men of ?"to find out what we
fro for the future.
hn
timate responsibility which competence and touO
e President is wryly
lies upon him as President. in action-to those vino at the self-serving
He is by no means isolated public affairs are bmb eaks-
which at
have been going
f-
ff
th
t
o
an s
a
.from advisers, but the truly types rather
on sound here to suggest
intimate circle is narrowing ficer types. that oiie fellow was right
in the. afterlight of the Cu- Two men, therefore, are
ban tragedy. Setback and now the men closest to, tkie %_ nc another to blame. He
President. One is lass 1?ro ier, inting heads to chop
sorrow (sorrow for the anti- Attorney General R o We r t
A,l the same, this cor-
Castro Cuban patriots who Kennedy. The other is Vice
y6ap ? cnt's firm impression
died in the lost Cuban In- President Lyndon Johnson he President's basic
vasion is frankly shown by Botha were intimately in- *xi to Cuba recalls what
_._ _.~
Me Ken1=11b) eeply w ie' (greatest personal crisis Derore
Mr.. Kennedy deeply aware Kung &fd when he was called
now, Bob Kennedy as an _ to Navy command after Pearl
that in the last hour of every; indispensable ally in the Harbor: "When they get into
crisis he is a man alone. At fight for the presidential trouble they. send for the so
the end, decisions of fateful nomination and L y nd on
consequences are his alone. and sos."
All this he well knew aca- Johnson as a powerful The term "sq and sos" is
opponent. not meant to suggest bad or
demically, of course, before The President knows from
he took office,. But a newly conscienceless men. Rather it
trained soldier may know in experience their deternrirsa- d e s c r.i b e s the unterrified
his mind the a coming c- tion, their fighting morale "hardnoses," the men who
tion will be bloody without and that neither. whatever `once committed to a thing
truly apprehending it in his his faults, is in the least way will carry it through to the
whole being until he actually afflicted by mushiness.' end.
goes through that action. It He also '1 ngWs their loy- Finally, some predictions
is much this way with. the alty-Bob e fnedy s unques- are n1tde on thus columnist's
President. tioning of erly loyalty; own possibility alone: The
He had long known in his Mr. Jo in n's more imper Ce ntffi telli ence Agency
-mind that since all life was sonal loya y to an admliiis- withi mad s W1Yt?"see the
a series of struggles, presi- tration of which he is an retire ; nt as director of
l life would be a series elected part. Ajle tulle a holdover
ti
d
a
en
of great struggles, indeed. To talk to the President, wino ntended' to
f rs to see a man much alto red ser ~t}tly: Its new
s
o
But a special awarenes
the mortal nature of those in recent weeks. He is still head_ will be a "hardnose,"
struggles has now come upon calm and laconic. But no possibly even Robert Ken-
him--not from theory but casual gaiety is in evidence nedy himself and possibly
from experience. now. He wastes no angry another such as Navy Secre-
So he is doing now what recriminations against any- tart' John Connally. Mr. Con-
is natural to a man whose body within his Government nally, an old "Johnson i ian,"
life-as a Naval officer dur- for the Cuban failure. He is fought Bob Kennedy at the
ing the war and as a politi- fully prepared. to take, and Democratic convention with
cian-has been based more even to insist upon, the final the same coolly furious skill
upon action than words. He responsibility which he. with wile, Bob Kennedy
i:; not shutting out those knows is his anyhow. fought him.
Approved For Release 1999/09/16 : CIA-RDP70-00058R000200110043-0