“FEB 18, 1961: McGeorge Bundy [United States National Security Adviser] passes on both the [Richard] Bissell [CIA Director] and the [Thomas] Mann [Assistant Secretary] position papers to the President. ‘Bissell and Mann are the real antagonists at the staff level,’ Bundy writes in a cover memo. ‘Since I think you lean toward Mann’s view, I have put Bissell on top.’ Bundy’s own position is that the U.S. should institute a trade embargo first, let internal opposition build for several months and then launch ‘Bissell’s battalion.’ At that point, he writes, ‘the color of civil war would be quite a bit stronger.’”
“The Bay of Pigs Invasion/Playa Giron: A Chronology of Events,” The National Security Archive, NSArchive2.gwu.edu