◆ SpookStack

Mr. Bundy further made it quite clear that the President had left for Glen Ora and tha~ the Secretary of State would act for him in the event that I wanted to dis- cuss the matter, and in fact the Secretary of State had the President's "proxy" in the case. He, Mr. Buridy, was leaving immediately for New York to "hold Ambassador Stevenson's hand. " I immediately contacted Mr. Bissell, Project Chief (Bissell was DD/Pi Ester- line was "Project Chief"], and made an appointment for the two of us to calIon the Secretary of State in his office at the earliest feasible moment. When we reported to the Secretary, he gave us a long explanation of the politi- cal impact of the now cancelled air strike. He made it quite clear that a new criterion or policy for the conduct of the overall operation was now in effect. Whereas in the preceding weeks and days I had formed the clear impression that the policy was that once launched, the operation must not be allowed to fail, the new policy was to accept the possibility of failure of the operation, but not accept the political implications of u.S. involvement which flowed from the air strike. This was so even though that strike was by Cuban air crews in aircraft staged from Central America. I pointed out the jeopardy to the success of the military phase of the operation caused by the cancellation of the air strike. The landing itself would be jeopardized unless: (a) it attained complete surprisei (b) all ship and boat movements and unloadings (including am- munition) were completed without hitch prior to dawni and (c) paratroop opera- tionsall were accomplished according to - 290 -