“[President John F.] Kennedy appointed a special commission of inquiry following the disaster. It was known as the Taylor Committee, under Maxwell Taylor, the general who was one of Kennedy’s principal military advisors. The Taylor Committee rendered its report in June 1961. The conclusion of the report was that the U.S. couldn’t live with this […]
Tag: quotes
5/17/1961
“[May 17, 1961] Approval is received for the establishment of a Revolutionary Council with the understanding that there should be no U.S. interference and that the Cubans were to nominate anyone they saw fit as Council President; also the President was to be free to select his own Council members.” “The Bay of Pigs Invasion/Playa […]
5/13/1961
“13.05.61 Charles Bowles, interim secretary to the President, wrote a Memorandum for President [John F.] Kennedy to determine whether to apply to Cuba the Mutual Defense Assistance Act, known as the Battle Act. Its terms provide that it could be enforced upon any nation threatening U.S. security and its enforcement would require the President to […]
4/16/1961
“As it happened, the U-2 reconnaissance on the Sunday [April 16, 1961], the day after that raid, showed that they had not wiped out the Cuban air force. [Fidel] Castro still had some thing like three T-33 trainers with machine guns and four C-Furies, British-built, single-engine fighter-bombers, and one B-26 left. I think they had […]
4/15/1961
“In early 1961 we [CIA training agents] knew this invasion was coming. We were out of the loop in Ecuador, so we didn’t know exactly when, but we knew it was starting on April 15, a Saturday, when two B-26 light bombers, these are World War II vintage twin-engine light bombers, with the insignias of […]
4/1/1961
”So beginning the first of April [1961] they [Cuban revolutionary government] began rounding up thousands of people all over the island who they thought might just show support for the invasion when it did come. On the very day of the invasion, April 17, they arrested something like 35,000 people in Havana alone and put […]
3/31/1961
“31.03.61 As provided for by the Sugar Act of 1948, as amended on this date, the President [John F. Kennedy] issued Presidential Proclamation 3401, determining that out of national security considerations the Cuban sugar quota for 1961 was to be canceled.” [Pro Embargo] “John F. Kennedy (D). Timeline,” Cuba versus Blockade: Cuban People’s website, 2007 […]
3/26/1961
“31.03.61 Public Law 87-15 was passed to amend section 408 of the Sugar Act of 1948, and gave presidential authority to extend the Cuban sugar quota until 30 June 1962. Likewise, it provided that sugar supplies could not be purchased from any country with which the United States did not have diplomatic relations… The severance […]
3/18/1961
“MAR 18, 1961: Richard Bissell [CIA Deputy Director of Plans] sends ‘Jim Noble,’ the last CIA station chief in Havana, to Miami to pull together the Cuban exile leadership into a unified body. The Cubans are summoned to the Skyways Motel where Noble’s Spanish speaking assistant Jim Can tells them: ‘if you don’t come out […]
3/17/1961
“MAR 17, 1961: The New York Times reports that in the coming weeks simultaneous invasions will take place at different points in Cuba.” “The Bay of Pigs Invasion/Playa Giron: A Chronology of Events,” The National Security Archive, NSArchive2.gwu.edu […]