◆ SpookStack

In response to the specific question that was asked of the JCS members during the course of the hearings regarding the probabilities of success of the BOP operation, each of the Chiefs answered that'if he had not believed that the objectives were attainable, he would have said so. What the Chiefs did point out during the course of the hearing was that this belief was based on the assumption that there would be a heavy D-Day air strike as had been outlined in the last operational plan that each of them had seen or been briefed on. The President's cancellation of the D-Day strike late on D-l was specifically noted during the course of the testimony of the Joint Chiefs as a factor which would have changed their minds. This point was not stressed in either Taylor's book or his newspaper article. In attempting to draw analogies between the Desert I plan for the rescue of the US hostages in Iran and the Bay of Pigs operation, Taylor's newspaper article stated that although there was a fail-safe plan to reduce the risks of the Iranian operation, there was no fail-safe plan for the Bay of Pigs. In fact: Although President Kennedy had always been uneasy about the whole business and had set back the date of the landing twice, he never sought to turn back the Brigade once it was headed toward Cuban soil. As a matter of fact, because of the precarious state of communications, I am not sure that a can- cellation would have been possible. !/ 228 l