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overt operation in C . II ..:FO~ SELkE I :J ' even suggesting that an against t: " J be mounted concur- rently with the Cuban operation. The members of the Special Group, however, were unwilling to buy this particular plan of action; but they did support Mr. Bissell's proposals for some limited covert action operations aimed at theL " J regime. James H. Douglas, Deputy Secretary of Defense questioned the feasibility of "expanding the initial beachhead into a full-scale takeover of the Cuban Government"; but Mr. Bissell pointed out that such a project was unrealistic unless "One or all of the following situations develops: (a) overt support, (b) a major revolutionary uprising, (e) massive use of air support." 20/ The Group was apparently in agreement that the Agency shoul~ make every effort to insure that no abortive small-scale insurrections be attempted to overthrow Castro. 211 In view of the fact that the US would break diplomatic relations with Cuba ~n 3 January 1961, the minutes of the Special Group meeting of 29 Deeem- ber 1960 present an interesting historical problem. In summarizing Livingston Merchant's report of his - 186 -