(Classified): THE RAPTAKER IN THE CUBAN 'FIASCO'

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000100250112-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 16, 1999
• Sequence Number: 112
• Publication Date: March 13, 1962
• Content Type: NSPR

CPYRGHTCPYRGHT MAR 1 3 1962
FIE%M1 ized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP7
Is_ Port. Of The Jo
Twice
in a long c A of unselfish
o
and courage
"servie to his
Counts' the name of' !chard
lines.
The first
time was l a s t
aftermath of
the patriots' in-
txo - Communist
Cuba., ? On t h a t
:Wh;ite,.., friends;
1Sa'.
those -egg er and girlishly- gos-
sipy leaks to certain syrnpa-
thetic correspondents w h i c h
ln' ify a Sort of civil servant
; 'ho is( strong most of all in
e qualify of self-
em "o s t kir4
Pointe the 41 er at Richard
B1ssel .` > A n
No rrer ; c the, F r e a t
itiidtch -ho' Norte it?' begun
over the co pse of the, lost ac-
tion than there began to ap-,
pear curious pieces in the
paperssprlnrng as from no-
rhere, in ch the n a in e
"$issell" led all the rest.
WHAT ON earth had been
wrong with the planning'? Well,
whatever it was, it, was Bissell
who was to, blame. It was 8is-
sell wh had, unwisely, advised
the a mitristratrgn to epter
this hapless enterprise and,
of course, .It 3 alsq you nd
out that tli ~ose who leaked t is
deathless information w e r g
themselves? wholly blameless.
They, of `course; had, opposed
It all a`long'.
From their standpoint, it h e
fall=buy' was well
'chosen. For
Richard Bissell, apart f r4n~i
the natural personal reserve of
a desperately shy man, was .an.
old - fashioned professional in
government who knew that civ-
il servants at his level. were
supposed to Beep their minds
opera. and t 'i . mouths c it y::,'
'TTiey were intended to lie ,ad-
visers to superiors, not ess
contact -men for themselves.
M ! oreol er, Bissell's own par-
job . enjoined f 1 1e n c e
upon hire in a special vay For
he was a high _- aid up to
this point a highly anonymous
-- official doing the most
hush,-hush sort of work in the
In a word;he 11T slot have
defended himself by counter-
leaks if he could, being, t he
kind of man he is, and he could
not have even if hP would.
JOHN F. Kennedy himself
sought no scapegoats for the
failure in Cuba, rightly re, ;liz-
4- 41...4 46-~:.4i. 1-A L.-
the tnifed $tat#s `fin4 that the .. ex-old pr s
rtespotisibfityi- of that 3;nh
can be shard by no one. as-. intended to say h ae
licf
t
T -7 -1
ithrn the, ad r is- not make mistakes in his sec= It hardl.,,? overstate= the mat-
tration ah w ev er," 'wel=n' rttfl"' so ommendai!ions for the Cu b p n. ter, does it, to uggest that it
generous.rapeoats lratttr be I action.' Nor is ii int?ndcd to seems a pity that when the
'to ftll the bill.
"l'frfi recently, his resigna-
tion -tvas announced-=and along
with this, his appointment as
executive vice president of the
Institute for Defense Analyses.
a university - supported group
which Ia seeking to. assist this
government in the cold war.
Aft; -small salute to the, t?A-
part'iittRichard Bissell is rot
suggest even that in the hard, ghost,dges walk among the bu.
Hugh game of public affairs reaucrats, handing out the spec-
It should not have had to pay tral blue =lips of dism sal, it
e priee_if error walks so often among t , men
' i* *, * of decision and, of course, of
1 ,a ll hgndred cnmplimen
to the highly cffecti,,e nature
of the h spe?-ing campaign by
leak ct hicti other bureaucrat
so gladly and quickly loose
against the one man who had
no means . or r;ae .-_ to
answer ba+'k.
#zttt, ..finally, it i~ intended
-to raise a most. in"lanchol
point: Bi:.sell, w}ia' - r h i
mistakes, was one nu'aucrar
who was repeatedl-, ,iiline to
risk mistakes --- in risk )-i t s
whole future, as in t nh.a --- in
order actually In do om'ihin_
Bureaucracy lends ii, pla~~ it
safe, and ";et CGenrge clo it -assn
take the rap. Bissell played it
dangerous, and Iet Richard do
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP75-00001 R000100250112-6