U.S. SAID TO SEEK '61 PLOT ON CASTRO

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000300510125-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 20, 2004
• Sequence Number: 125
• Publication Date: June 1, 1975
• Content Type: NSPR

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1JUN'E19 75
Approved For Release 2005/01/11 : CIA-RDP88-01315R000300 2 kt+ t.1< e Pe-f tC4
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' He-said that after consid.
SAID TO SEES erabie?worc?on the plan it be-
y... came`' clear ' that it was not
f
20
, Cuasibte" to find the cl or eus 3 o f
l
r'? Cubans ;to
6I PLOT ON UASTRO form the nuc
t The pressure to
4-1
jotelligence Aides Say Ways
''jof Removal Were Studied
NICHOLAS M.. SoitaoCK
,.,.
BDeda1 to Ttu Nevp York Times
WASHINGTON, May 31
There was a - "frantic" search
for . ways to remove Premie
?yidel Castro of Cuba after the
failure of the Bar of Pigs inva-
sion, former senior intelligence
officers have told the Rockefel-
._- commission-_ -This search.
mavemen .
remove. ':Mr.. . Castro - grew
steadily: in :early. 1962 as
United `. States Intelligence
sources reported that'?he -was
allowing 'the ? Soviet:, Union , to
build. ballistic' missile ?'sltes:Jn
Cub&, :t. ... _ ..`. ;; :
It was has opinion, he said,
that General Lansdale's original
plan for a popular uprising
would have 'failed on several,
counts, mainly because it would
take too long. He said that:
"obviously" assassinations was
far more "immediate". solutions
provided Mr. Castro's heirs in'
government would bar the
Soviets.
Another former senior Intel-
ligence officer said he too be-
lieved that the Lansdale plan
would not work and had told
Secretary of 'Defense Robert S.
McNamara that in a -private;
meeting. This source stressed:
that at that point he viewed
General Lansdale's plan sirnplyi
as one for a cop d'etat andl,
knew of no assassination as-!
pacts to it. j
General Landsdale said ' he
could not: recall writing, a
memorandum in August, 1962,
the C.I;A. to. -prepare a con,
tingency plan for- assassinat-
ing Mr.' Castro, but he said he
could nt rule out that such a
aid
-
,.. --
?t4 avers. ,
s
engendered. ,several" plans toy existed.
-assassinate? the Cuban leader I He said that to his knowl-
to these sources, edge his planning never be.
din
A
ccor
g
, Interviewed over the last sever-1 came operational and that'
at days, the contingency plans when the Cuban missile crisis
formulated by Maj. Gen. Ed-1 flared up In October, 1962, her
ward G. Lansdale, retired, were was no longer involved in they
only one ',track". of the plan-
ning in the Central Intelligence
Agency and the Department
of Defense.
Yesterday, General Lansdale,
said that in. November, 196101
Attorney General Robert F.
Kennedy ordered him to pre-
pare a secret, contingency plan
to depose Mr. Castro. General
Lansdale confirmed that Robert,
Kennedy was acting on behalf'
of President Kennedy.
General Lansdale conftrmedi
In a telephone interview that at
Robert Kennedy's orders het
prepared a plan that envisioned
slipping a politically cohesive
group of selected Cuban exiles
back into their homeland in the
hope they might be able to
start a popular uprising against
Mr. Castro. ? ? l whether President Kennedy orl
He agreed that it was a plan, senior members of his Admin
to remove Mr. Castro in much! istration ever specifically asked
ment of Fulgencoo Batista.
In preparing this plan, Gen-
eral Lansdale acknowledged,
the matter of assassination as
M
knowledge of a- plot to krill
Mr. Castro that involved the!
C.I.A: s recruiting two men!
associated with the Mafia.
Other intelligence sources,
said that shortly after the Bayl
of Pigs debacle in April, 1961;1
C.I.A. officials began a "fran-,
tic" search for ways to remove
Mr. Castro because it appeared.
he was consorting with the So-;
sphere, they said, would have'
been "several" plans to kill
the Cuban leader as one way
of getting rid of him. Others
"two or three plans."
No ? published. reports have
yet answered the question
Nor is it clear in the public rec-
ord who ordered any one ofi
these plans set in motion.
Found Risks Rising
r.' One former senior intelli-r
one means of removing
Castro may have been con- Bence officer said that the 1961
templated. He said that he; 62 period must be viewed as
knew as he prepared the plan: u time "when the risks faced
that "operationally down the. by our Government because of;
pike something like this could, Cuba were accelerating."
emerge-not only assassina After the failure of the Bay
tion, but other things like de-1 of Pigs, he said, the United
famation of character." States at first could consider,
lie ruled out any notion that: relatively long-term projects,:
he ever received specific or-: but when it became clear that
ders from either Robert Ken-1 Soviet missiles might well be,
nedy or President Kennedy to based in Cuba, "time for us
prepare a plan to assassinate was running out."
Mr. Castro. tt
c5 5 1 - r;
Approved For Release 2005/01/11: CIA-RDP88-01315R000300510125-8