◆ SpookStack

JCSM-l46-6l specified that "if only one Cuban combat plane escapes destruction and interdicts the field [in this case the airfield at Trinidad], the oper,ation would be seriously handicapped." If the existence of a single aircraft posed a threat to the overall operation at Trinidad, where the airstrip was to be used initially for bringing in supplies, such an aircraft would have posed an even more serious threat to the operation at Playa Giron where the airstrip was to be used immediately for the support of combat a-26s. The implication in McNamara's statement that Castro had a large inventory of aircraft from which to draw also is with- out foundation. Castro's inventory of both available aircraft and, equally important, available pilots was at best marginal. Castro himself stated that if the fight had continued for gl another five days, FAR would have been out of pilots. Secretary McNamara also introduced an idea that had not come up in any of the previous testimony, and again it would be an issue which went unchallenged by the members of the Taylor Committee. In discussing the feasibility of having the CIA run an operation of the sort which had been brought to an end on the beach at Playa Giron, Secretary McNamara was quite positive that the Department of Defense was in a better position to handle sizable paramilitary operations than '07 V ./