On Thu, Apr 16, 2026 at 12:02 PM National Security Archive <[email protected]> wrote:
> On 65th Anniversary, Archive Posts Selection of Key CIA and White House > Records on Paramilitary Assault and Aftermath. JFK considered dismantling > CIA after failed invasion. As U.S. again threatens Cuba, Bay of Pigs a > “cautionary > history”. > > > > > > > Cuba: The Bay of Pigs Invasion 65 Years Later > > <https://default.salsalabs.org/Tc023e66e-c730-4097-bb2a-fa7b3c7f032b/12238b38-d371-4bc9-b2b2-ab5a3bdb144f> > On 65th Anniversary, Archive Posts Selection of Key CIA and White House > Records on Paramilitary Assault and Aftermath > JFK Considered Dismantling CIA After Failed Invasion > As U.S. Again Threatens Cuba, Bay of Pigs a “Cautionary History” > > *Washington D.C., April 16, 2026* - In the wake of the failed CIA-led Bay > of Pigs invasion, President John F. Kennedy considered reconfiguring and > even dismantling the intelligence agency, according to documents posted by > the National Security Archive on the 65th anniversary of the paramilitary > assault on Cuba. The President tasked his White House aide, Arthur > Schlesinger, to examine “the British intelligence set up” to determine > “what of value there might be for our own thinking about CIA > reorganization,” according to a little-known secret memorandum to Kennedy > dated a month after attack. “What is of special interest in the British > experience is, not the division between intelligence and operations,” > Schlesinger advised the President, “but the means by which the clandestine > service is kept under continuous policy control.” > > The May 18, 1961, document, titled “How to Organize an Intelligence > Service: The British example,” along with a second Schlesinger memo > declassified in full last year on “CIA Reorganization,” are included in a > special collection of formerly secret records posted today by the National > Security Archive to commemorate the Bay of Pigs invasion. The selection > also includes a comprehensive secret CIA report on its collaboration with > the Mafia to assassinate Fidel Castro in advance of the invasion—a plot > paid for out of the invasion budget—as well as Cuban intelligence reports > from Central America on the CIA’s preparations to launch an exile attack on > the island. > > Today’s anniversary posting also highlights the top secret, 100-page CIA > “Inspector General’s Survey of the Cuban Operation”—a scathing, > self-critical, Agency postmortem considered so sensitive that CIA director > John McCone burned most of the 20 existing copies to sequester the report > from critics, like Schlesinger, who sought to hold the Agency accountable > for the Bay of Pigs debacle. “In unfriendly hands,” CIA Deputy Director > William Cabell noted in a December 1961 memorandum, the IG report “could > become a weapon unjustifiably used to attack the entire mission, > organization, and functioning of the Agency.” > > After several years of FOIA efforts, the National Security Archive > obtained the declassification of the CIA Inspector General’s report in the > late 1990s. In his book, *Bay of Pigs Declassified*, the Archive’s Cuba > Documentation Project director, Peter Kornbluh, designated the report as > “the historical Holy Grail of the Bay of Pigs.” > * https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/cuba-cuban-missile-crisis/2026-04-16/cuba-bay-pigs-invasion-65-years-later <https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/cuba-cuban-missile-crisis/2026-04-16/cuba-bay-pigs-invasion-65-years-later>* -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#41482): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/41482 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/118862760/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
