◆ SpookStack

94/ 1. I could not get a decision from either the President or the Secretary on the policy question of whether the plan should be carried through; I did not want to be responsible for the area if I could not have a clear decision on the policy issues at stake. E/ 2. I don't know what his [Rusk's] feelings were. Now, that sounds strange because we attended maybe a dozen meetings, most often with the President, but if he [Rusk] ever expressed himself as seeing it through or scrubbing it very clearly, I wasn't aware of it. 93/ The Secretary of State also addressed the question of the anticipated reaction of the Cuban populace to the news that invaders had landed. Like other witnesses, he expressed the opinion that there was considerable likelihood of a popular uprising. It is interesting that no one on the committee asked Secretary Rusk whether this was a problem which his department had examined in any detail, for it was a topic which his own Director of Intelligence and Research, Roger Hi1sman, had proposed for careful study because of reservations which he had when he heard about the program. Mr. Hi1sman's proposal was rejected out of hand by the Secretary of State. When CSG members asked Secretary Rusk if it was understood that the Joint Chiefs of Staff favored the Trinidad plan over the Zapata plan, Secretary Rusk commented on the more spectacular nature of Trinidad and noted that Zapata had greater political advantages and that the JCS had approved 96