SECURITY VIOLATION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP01-00569R000100020019-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 17, 2009
• Sequence Number: 19
• Publication Date: May 28, 1981
• Content Type: MEMO

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/11/20: CIA-RDP01-00569R000100020019-0
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28 May 1981
MEMORANDUM FOR: Chief, Information and Privacy Division
THROUGH : Acting Chief, History Staff
FROM
SUBJECT Security Violation
1. On 22 May 1981 when reviewing some material for in-
clusion in a volume of the Official History of the Bay of
Pigs Operation, I came across the following quotation in Arthur
M. Schlesinger's book Robert Kennedy and His Times (p.454)
with reference to CIA and FBI operatives w o: "see themselves
as the appointed guardians of the Republic, infinitely more
devoted and knowledgeable than transient elected officials,
morally authorized to do on their own whatever they believed
the nation's security demanded. Let others interfere at
their peril. J. D.Esterline, the CIA's supervisor of planning
for the Bay of Pigs, bitterly told the board of inquiry, 'as
long as decisions by professionals can be set aside by people
who know not whereof they speak, you won't succeed'.'"
2. The source reference specified on p. 971 for the above
quotation is given as "Cuba Study Group, May 19, 1961, RFK
papers." This source reference is incorrect and should read:
Cuba Study Group, 19th Meeting, 22-23 May 1.961, p. 22. (The
19 May 1961 testimony at the meeting of the CSG was by Admiral
Arleigh Burke, not Jake Esterline as spelled out by Schlesinger.)
3. Checking my record of reviews of the Cuba Study Group
(e.g. the Taylor Committee Report) which were done some years
ago at the request of IPD, I learned that although I had rec-
ommended sanitization and declassification of the 19th Meeting,
the NSC recommended that the SECRET classification be retained,
and this was done. I also reconfirmed the SECRET classification
with Judy Koucky of NARS today (27 May 81). Consequently,
Dr. Schlesinger had used a citation from a classified document.
4. At NARS suggestion, I contacted Suzanne Forbes, an
archivist at the John F. Kennedy Library, to ask if she could
explain how Schlesinger had gained access to the classified,
report. After checking, she informed me that when working on
his book (published in 1978) Schlesinger had gained access to
the copies of Taylor Committee papers which were included among
other papers in the Robert Kennedy collection. At the time
that Schlesinger was granted such access, the Robert Kennedy
papers were being held in "courtesy storage" by NARS in Wash-
ington; but access was controlled by the Kennedy family not
NARS.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/11/20: CIA-RDP01-00569R000100020019-0
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/11/20: CIA-RDP01-00569R000100020019-0
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Page 2
28 May 1981
Security Violation
5. I bring this matter to your attention should you think
it would be of interest to the NSC. I also think that NARS
should be asked to insure that the collection of Cuba Study
Group papers on the BOP which now are held in the Robert Kennedy
files at the JFK Library be reviewed for sanitization and
classified in accordance with the Taylor Committee papers on
the BOP held in the National Security Files at the JFK Library.
If this is not done, there is a strong probability of subse-
quent security violations.
CIA History Staff
316 Ames Bldg
Distribution
O&l-addressee
1-.HS Chrono
2-JBP
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/11/20: CIA-RDP01-00569R000100020019-0