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sews © seme TO 6S G comprehension and approval, the culminating incident which preceded the loss of the Cuban brigade might never have happened. 47. We are informed that this took place as follows: On the evening of 16 April the President instructed the Secretary of State that the D-Day strikes setfor the following morning should be cancelled, unless there were overriding considera- tions to advise him of. The Secretary then informed the Deputy Director of Central Intelligence, the Director being absent from Washington, and the Deputy Director (Plans) of this decision, offering to let them call the President at Glen Ora if they wished. They preferred not to do so, and the Secretary concluded from this that they did not believe the strikes to be vital to success. A Civilian Decision 48. Earlier that evening the project chief and his para- military chief had emphatically warned the DD/P to insist that cancellation of the strikes would produce disaster. Thus the DD/P, a civilian without military experience, and the DDCI, an Air Force general, did not follow the advice of the project's paramilitary chief, a specialist in amphibious operations. And the President made this vital, last-minute decision without direct contact with the military chiefs of the invasion Operation.