AND ONCE AGAIN--WHY CUBAN INVASION FAILED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70-00058R000300040107-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 9, 1998
• Sequence Number: 107
• Publication Date: February 5, 1964
• Content Type: NSPR

FOIAb3b.
Sanitized - Approved For Release : C
MIAMI HERALD
~i !'1 'j (i~1i rf ~
77
A security silence imposed
by the late President Kennc-
dy and continued by his suc-
cessor created a regrettable
shortcoming for NBC's White
Paper re-examination Tues-
day night of the Bay of Pigs
'fiasco.
It was an impressive mar-
shaling of facts, figures and
testimony -- at least from
the. Cuban
exile lenders
-- hut it. ser-
iously needed
some explana-
tions from
---! U.S. officials
who were involved.
This wasn't NBC's fault of
course. N:irrat.or Chet Hunt-
ley and N BM; State Dcipart-
ment correspondent, Eli n
Abel, explained that these
'officials simply were not
available for interview,
Alien Dulles, former (;IA
chief was heard franc, but it
was not clear whether ho'
tallced for the NBC special or
his statements were excerpt-
er) from news films shot at
t.he'tinto of the 1961 crisis. In
any event, ho has left the
government.
The program vans Part I of
a two
-part series. The second
will be aired Feb. 9 and will
deal with the later Cuban
missile crisis.
The networl; originally had
FEB 5 1964
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CPYRG-IT
faulty communications.
Washington insisted on a
yr' J~nv.~. ....? ~.....
ANDERSON
l'{ rcid Radio
cad
'IV Editor
PYRGHT
l~tu
coalition of Cuban leadership
then so little trusted it that
it kept the leaders under
armed guard in an Opa-locka
house while the invasion was
in progress.
Lam.' I I nor permitted to take a hand -
scheduled the first part for
the Sunday following Presi-
dent Kennedy's funeral but
because of that tragedy, it
was postponed several times.
The Tuesday night segment
was titled The Story of a
Disaster." As the program
wended its way through the
official and unofficial, cloak-
and-dagger b u s i n e s s that
surrounded the hapless inva-
sion, that title seemed to
border on' the understate-
ment.
With nary a peep permit-
ted from t ho participants in
Washington, we got only It
second-baaid version of Amer-
icati policy from thaso Cuban
exile chiefs - among them,
Antonio do Varona, Itaul
Chibas, Manuel Rey, Manuel
Artiste -- who were in Con-
tact with Washington.
Gathering from what they
had to say for NBC's cam-
eras, the whole invasion proj-
ect was riddled with mis-
understandings, mistrust and
1 is a t w e e n u>tervyews, the numuiatar.-
11L Ulu J11LALI'lly. 1JI".
CIA ran the show. Some-
where along the line both
lha C`uhnn 7naAnrc and tha
CPYRGHT
invasion brigade got the im-
pression the invasion would
have full-scale American sr_a. program fleshed out 'a hl-tor-'-
.and air support. As a matter , lend narrative with films of fact, a naval task force many of them shot inside
was in the area. But Wash- Cuba during the fighting by
ington officialdom strenuous- j German and other neutralist
ly denied it had assured su- photographers --'of the key
port. events and figures. The film
In addition, there was nn. footage was intelligently
, selected and edited.
uprising in Cuba to pace the
Invasion. The implication = Huntley explained that this
from one Cuban leader who Part I of Its two programs
was with, the underground was the story of "the failure
then was that an uprising of U.S. power." Its secondl,
depended on how successful part, on the missile crisis,
the Invasion was going. In will be the story of "the suo-o
any event, the uprising never cess of American power."
got the signal to go. Tuesday right's'
prograrti
The invasion was the worst with the informational s6nr:.4
kept secret in history.'News es available - or not anaila-
of its planning leaked all over ble to it - didn't, ac';d any.
the place. significant facts to ?;nforma
It was a painful' catalogue ,ion already on rece;rd,
of blunders to listen to and Rather, it was ran effective-
NBC ticked them off. with ly documented *-ecollection of
CPYRGHT
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP70-00;058R000300040107-6