2/11/1961

“FEB 11, 1961: In a memo to the President [John F. Kennedy], Arthur Schlesinger [Special Assistant] argues that the ‘drastic decision’ to enact the plan being promoted within the government only makes sense ‘if one excludes everything but Cuba.’ Taken in the context of ‘the hemisphere and the rest of the world, the arguments against this decision begin to gain force.’ He points out that there is no way to disguise U.S. complicity in the plan and ‘at one stroke, it would dissipate all the extraordinary good will which has been rising toward the new Administration through the world.'”

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