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Cuban Study Group; and responded to questions concerning the broad picture of the capability of the US to respond to Cold War situations and to engage in paramilitary activities. The principal witnesses at the ninth meeting, however, were Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and General Earl Wheeler, then Director of the Joint Staff of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Almost immediately upon beginning his testimony, Secretary McNamara was queried about the influence that Thomas Mann-- Assistant Secretary of State for American Republic Affairs until'about a month before the invasion--had on the formulation of the anti-Castro effort, particularly on the policy of non-attribution. Mr. McNamara was quite firm in his defense of the Department of State representative and said: Tom Mann enforced the {anti-Castro] plan before the point of no return••• The qesirability of non-attribution was a general view, almost to be met prior to . approval. However, this can't be charged to TOIl} Mann. 77/ Unlike the CIA planners who were convinced that their operation to oust Castro could succeed without the direct inter- vention of U.S. armed forces, Mann pragmatically ;insisted that as a fundamental condition for acceptance of the Agency plan there should be a commitment to victory even if this meant the use of U.S. forces. l1ann's arguments \'lerebased on a number of , 8;2 ~ '.)".:1 ., .-