Software Vault: The Gold Collection/Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO/cdr11/jfk123.zip/CHAP4

Text File | 1993-06-01 | 12KB | 229 lines

                               Chapter 4
             How It All Began - The U-2 and the Bay of Pigs

To understand the origins of the Power Control Group, it is necessary to
return  to the last years of the Eisenhower administration  and  examine
what was going on in the Cold War.

Eisenhower  had  suffered several strokes and a heart  attack.   He  was
partially  immobilized, and entrusted a major share of the  coordination
of  clandestine activities being conducted by the CIA against  the  "Red
Menace"  to  Richard Nixon, his vice president.  While Ike  was  warning
against   the  military-industrial-complex's  domestic  influence,   and
attempting  to  move toward detente with the Soviets  through  a  summit
meeting,  he was being sabotaged by the plans section of the CIA and  by
Richard Nixon.

A  part  of the CIA arranged for a U-2 with Gary Powers as pilot  to  go
down  over  Russia, thus giving Khrushchev a chance to  expose  American
spying  and to cancel the summit meeting.  This was one of the  earliest
moves of the nucleus of what later evolved into the Power Control Group.
In the spring of 1960, with Ike nearly senile and pressured by Nixon, he
approved  the  plan for the invasion of Cuba and  the  assassination  of
Castro.   Nixon was the chief White House action officer for what  later
became the Bay of Pigs invasion.

The  Power Control Group was beginning to organize itself with Nixon  as
part  of it.  The cold warriors and strong anti-Communist "patriots"  in
the Plans or Operations part of the CIA formed the original nucleus.

Their  plan  was  to  make  Nixon president in  1961  and  to  launch  a
successful takeover of Cuba.  John Kennedy came along to upset the plan.
Not only did he make the takeover impossible but he soon discovered  the
evils  lurking in the hearts and minds of the CIA clandestine  operators
and  laid  his  own plans to destroy them.  The  assassination  of  John
Kennedy  essentially  became  an  act of  survival  for  some  of  these
individuals.

Many  citizens  of America have forgotten that Richard  Nixon  was  Vice
President  of  the  United States in 1959 and 1960.   As  an  old  anti-
communist from the Alger Hiss and Khrushchev debating days, Nixon was in
the forefront of pressure for the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.  What is
also  forgotten  is that Nixon was largely responsible  for  the  covert
training of Cuban exiles by the CIA in preparation for the Bay of  Pigs.
(He stated this in his book, "Six Crises".)

NIXON'S  LIES--OCTOBER 1960.  Mr. Nixon's capacity for truth is  nowhere
more clearly demonstrated than by the deliberate lies he told during the
election  campaign on national TV on October 21, 1960.  He said  in  his
book  that  the lies were told for a patriotic  reason--to  protect  the
covert  operations  planned  for  the Bay of Pigs  at  all  costs.   The
significance  of this is that Mr. Nixon considers patriotism to  be,  in
part,  the  protection  of  plans and actions  of  individuals  that  he
considered to be working for the United States' best interests.

The similarities between the actions of Everette Howard Hunt, Jr., James
McCord,  Bernard Barker, Frank Sturgis, and others in the 1960  planning
for  the  Bay  of Pigs invasion and in the 1972  planning  for  the  re-
election of Richard M. Nixon are very striking.  In both cases, what the
plotters  themselves considered to be patriotic, anti-Communist  actions
were involved.  In 1960 the actions were directed against Fidel  Castro,
a  man  they hated as a Communist.  In 1972 the  actions  were  directed
against  Edward  Kennedy, Edmund Muskie and  George  McGovern.   Bernard
Barker  stated  the  group's collective belief when he  said  after  his
arrest  that,  "We  believe that an election of McGovern  would  be  the
beginning  of  a trend that would lead to socialism  and  communism,  or
whatever you want to call it."

Nixon  admitted  lying to the American people to protect  Hunt,  Barker,
Sturgis,  and  McCord in 1960.  The likelihood that he lied  to  protect
them  again  in 1972 seems to be quite good.  There is  some  likelihood
that he actually hired the same old crew he trusted from the Bay of Pigs
days for the 1972 Watergate and other espionage activities. Here are the
facts:

                   Nixon's Statements in "Six Crises"

Richard  Nixon  stated in "Six Crises":  "The covert training  of  Cuban
exiles by the CIA was due in substantial part, at least, to my  efforts.
This had been adopted as a policy as a result of my direct  support."[1]
"President Eisenhower had ordered the CIA to arm and train the exiles in
May  of  1960.  Nixon and his advisors wanted the CIA invasion  to  take
place before the voters went to the polls on November 8, 1960."[2]

While  the Bay of Pigs operation was under the overall CIA direction  of
Allen  Dulles,  Richard  M.  Bissell, Jr. was the  CIA  man  in  charge,
according to Ross & Wise.[3]  Charles Cabell,[4] the deputy director  of
the  CIA, and a man with the code name Frank Bender, were also near  the
top of the operational planning.[5]

                             E. Howard Hunt

Everette Howard Hunt, Jr. was in charge of the actual invasion. He  used
the  code  name,  "Eduardo."  Bernard L. Barker,  using  the  code  name
"Macho," worked for Hunt in the CIA Bay of Pigs planning.  James  McCord
was  an  organizer for the invasion and was one of the  highest  ranking
officials  in  the CIA.  Frank Sturgis, alias Frank  Fiorini,  was  also
involved  in  the Bay of Pigs operations.  Virgilio Gonzales was  a  CIA
agent  active  in the Bay of Pigs.  So was  Eugenio  Martinez.   Charles
Colson was a former CIA official who knew McCord and Hunt during the Bay
of Pigs period.[6]

Hunt,  Barker,  McCord,  Sturgis,  Gonzales,  and  Martinez  were  under
indictment for the Watergate affair.  Colson was Nixon's special counsel
who  handled  "touchy"  political  assignments.   According  to   "Time"
magazine, Colson brought all of the others into the reelection committee
espionage project at the request of Nixon.[7]

In  other words, it was basically the same group who worked  for  Nixon,
Bissell  and  Co. in 1960 and who worked for Nixon, Colson  and  Co.  in
1972.   They were all loyal, patriotic, anti-Communist, and  anti-Castro
CIA agents with covert (black) espionage training.  They needed  Nixon's
protection in 1960 and 1972, and they received it both times.

Here is how Nixon protected them in 1960.[8]

                      Kennedy-Nixon Debates, 1960

John  Kennedy  and  Richard Nixon engaged in a  series  of  national  TV
debates during the 1960 campaign.  Kennedy was briefed by Allen  Dulles,
head  of the CIA at Eisenhower's request, on secret CIA  activities  and
international  problems  on July 23, 1960.  Nixon was not aware  of  the
briefing contents and was not sure whether Dulles told Kennedy about the
Bay of Pigs plans.  As it turned out Dulles had not mentioned the  plans
but had kept his remarks about Cuba rather general.

On October 6, 1960, Kennedy gave his major speech on Cuba.  He said that
events  might create an opportunity for the U.S. to bring  influence  on
behalf of the cause of freedom in Cuba.  He called for encouraging those
liberty-loving Cubans who were leading the resistance against Castro.

Nixon  became  very  disturbed about this because he  felt  Kennedy  was
trying to pre-empt a policy which he claimed as his own.  Nixon  ordered
Fred Seaton, Secretary of the Interior, to call the White House and find
out  whether  Dulles had briefed Kennedy on the  Cuban  invasion  plans.
Seaton  talked  to General Andrew Goodpaster, Eisenhower's link  to  the
CIA, who told Seaton that Kennedy did know about the Bay of Pigs plans.

                       Attack on Kennedy by Lying

Nixon  became incensed.  He said, "There was only one thing I could  do.
The covert operation had to be protected at all costs.  I must not  even
suggest  by implication that the U.S. was rendering aid to rebel  forces
in  and out of Cuba.  In fact, I must go to the other extreme:   I  must
attack   the  Kennedy  proposal  to  provide  such  aid  as  wrong   and
irresponsible because it would violate our treaty commitments."[9]

So  Richard M. Nixon actually went on national TV (ABC) on  October  21,
1960, knowing we were going to invade Cuba, and lied. During the  fourth
TV   debate,   Nixon   attacked  Kennedy's   proposal   as   dangerously
irresponsible  and  in violation of five treaties between the  U.S.  and
Latin America, as well as the United Nations' Charter.[10]

On  October  22  at  Muhlenberg College,  Nixon  really  turned  on  the
fabrication steam.  He said, "Kennedy called for--and get this--the U.S.
Government  to support a revolution in Cuba, and I say that this is  the
most  shockingly  reckless  proposal  ever made  in  our  history  by  a
presidential candidate during a campaign--and I'll tell you why . . ."

The  reason  we should have taken with a grain of  salt  whatever  words
Nixon uttered about Watergate and Donald Segretti's espionage is clearly
demonstrated in that October 22, 1960 speech.  He fiercely attacked John
Kennedy for advocating a plan that he, Richard Nixon, secretly advocated
and  claimed as his own creation.  He later had the sheer gall  to  brag
about it in his own book as a very patriotic act.

                       Protection of Hunt and Co.

How  was  Nixon protecting Hunt and company in 1972?  He was  using  the
Justice  Department  and the Republican Congressmen,  among  others,  to
delay and dilute the prosecution of the Watergate seven.  He had  slowed
down,  suppressed,  and  all but stopped  six  separate  investigations,
suits,  and trials of the affair.  Included were Wright  Patman's  House
Banking    Committee   investigation,   the    FBI-Justice    Department
investigation,  a  White  House investigation by John  Dean,  a  General
Accounting  Office investigation, a suit by the Democratic Party, and  a
trial  in  criminal  court of the seven invaders.  Only  two  trials  or
investigations had a chance of exposing the truth at that time.  One  of
these,  a  trial of Bernard Barker in Florida was not  much  help.   The
other  was an investigation promised by Senator Edward Kennedy  and  his
Senate  subcommittee.   It never occurred.  The action  for  impeachment
came much later.

Thus,  the stage was set in 1961 for the group of  powerful  individuals
who  had  planned the Bay of Pigs to gain revenge on  John  Kennedy  who
tried  to  change  the  overall direction of  the  U.S.  battle  against
Communism.   After JFK refused to approve overt U.S. backing of the  Bay
of  Pigs  invasion, various individuals in the  clandestine  CIA  forces
vowed their revenge.

In  the  spring of 1961, evidence had appeared  indicating  that  Helms,
Hunt,  Sturgis and Barker tried to have JFK assassinated  in  Paris.[11]
When the attempt failed, a number of other plots and sub-plots developed
through  the  next  two years.  After JFK's  blockade  strategy  against
Castro  during the missile crisis in 1962 was implemented, some  of  the
high-level  CIA and armed forces people wanted even more to get him  out
of  the White House.  They had favored a direct invasion or  bombing  of
Cuba.

And  finally,  when  JFK found out about the  CIA's  plans  for  another
invasion of Cuba in the spring and summer of 1963 and stopped them, they
began in earnest to plan his death.
____________________

[1] "Six Crises," Richard M. Nixon, Doubleday, 1962.

[2] "The Invisible Government,"  Wise & Ross, Random House, 1964.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Brother   of  Earl  Cabell,  mayor  of  Dallas  when   Kennedy   was
    assassinated.

[5] Ibid.

[6] "New York Times" articles on Watergate, June 18 to July 2, 1972.

[7] "Time" magazine, September 8, 1972.

[8] This episode is related in detail in "The Invisible Government."

[9] "Six Crises".

[10] "The Invisible Government."

[11] "400,000  Dollars  Pour Abattre Kennedy a  Paris,"  Camille  Giles,
     Julliard Press, Paris 1973.

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