1/28/1961

“JAN 28, 1961: [President John F.] Kennedy receives his first briefing as President on the Cuban operation in a meeting attended by Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, National Security Adviser McGeorge Bundy, CIA Director [Allen W.] Dulles, General [Lyman] Lemnitzer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Assistant Secretaries [Thomas C.] Mann and [Paul] Nitze, and [Charles] Tracy Barnes [Principal Manager] of the CIA. After hearing the estimate of the Defense Department that no course of action currently authorized by the United States Government will be effective in reaching the agreed national goal of overthrowing the Castro regime, and the State Department’s view that any overt military action not authorized and supported by the OAS [Organization of American States] will have grave political dangers, President Kennedy authorizes: 1) A continuation and accentuation of current activities of the Central Intelligence Agency, Including increased propaganda, increased political action and increased sabotage. Continued overflights for these purposes were specifically authorized; 2) The Defense Department, with CIA, will review proposals for active deployment of anti-Castro Cuban forces on Cuban territory, and the results of this analysis will be promptly reported to the President; 3) The Department of State will prepare a concrete proposal for action with other Latin-American countries to isolate the Castro regime and to bring against it the judgment of the Organization of American States.”

“The Bay of Pigs Invasion/Playa Giron: A Chronology of Events,” The National Security Archive, NSArchive2.gwu.edu