DA SIDE Of 4 :,1511.,. - Hood College

—%.5And instead of blaming the Bay of Pigs defeat on Kennedy's decision not to bomb a second time or the failure tokill Castro before the invasion — as Hersh does -- Kirkpatrick concluded that the operation was doomed from theoutset by poor planning, a lack of popular support insideCuba and a CIA blindness to the facts. Another CIA error,Kirkpatrick wrote, was the "failure to advise the President,at an appropriate time, that success had become dubiousand to recommend that the operation be therefore cancelled."The 1.G. report notes, too, the CIA had failed "to reduce successive project plans to formal papers and to leavecopies of them with the President and his advisers and torequest specific written approval and confirmation thereof."In other words, the CIA was limiting Kennedy's ability toreview and possibly reverse the agency's rush to invade.The CIA's rosy pre-invasion assessments were published as an annex to the I.G. report -- and they undermineanother pillar of Hersh's anti-Kennedy thesis. In the fourpapers shown to therWhite House in 1961 dated Feb. 17, March11, March 16 and April12 — none makes a reference, directly or indirectly, to a plannedassassinationplot.There is not even anoblique reference to expected turmoil in the Cuban leadership or anything elsethat might be interpreted as a euphemistic reference to an"executive action"The absence of any assassination reference in the CIAupdates must be seen as bolstering earlier investigative conclusions that President Kennedy did not authorize a preBay of Pigs assassination of Castro. That was the conclusion of a separate 1967 CIA inspector general's report onassassination plots and a 1975 congressional investigationheaded by Sen. Frank Church, 0-Idaho.The 1967 I.G. report also raised the allegation thatRobert Kennedy might have approved Castro assassinationplots. Not true, the CIA report concluded. Then, on page132, the report asks: "Can CIA state or imply that it wasmerely an instrument of policy?" The inspector general'sresponse: "Not in this case," an answer indicating that theCIA was acting with some independence in the area of assassination — just as Kirkpatrick concluded the CIA had inthe overall Bay of Pigs operation.chapters preceding the "murder . in the air" formulation,Hersh actually compiles a far stronger case that PresidentDwight Eisenhower, Vice President Richard Nixon and theCIA brass were already hard at work arranging assassinations against Castro and other Third World leaders, nearlya year before Kennedy became president.Early in 1960, for instance, the Eisenhower administration concluded that "unless Fidel and Raul Castro andChe Guevara could be eliminated in one package," any covert military operation "would be a long, drawn-out affair,"according to a passage Hersh quotes from the Church report. Hersh then notes that the Church investigation discovered that "the CIA made its first overt move to bring theMafia into the assassination plotting against Castro in lateAugust of 1960."Under command of the CIA's covert action chief, Richard M. Bissell Jr., the CIA used a former FBI agentnamed Robert A. Maheu to contact Mafia kingpin JohnnyRosselli, who turned to his Chicago-based organized crimecolleagues for help. OnSept. 24, 1960, Maheuflew to Miami wherehe met with crime bossSam Giancana to sealthe deal on Castro'sdoom.The Republicanswanted Castro "doneaway within November," before the Nov. 8 election, according to a quotefrom Giancana recounted in the Church report. "As theelection neared," Hersh wrote, "Nixon was frantic aboutCuba. Getting rid of Castro, by overthrow or murder, hethought, would give him the presidency."The CIA readied its first batch of poisoned cigars fordelivery by Oct. 7, 1960. There was also talk about arranging "a typical, gangland-style killing in which Castrowould be gunned down," according to the 1967 CIA's I.G.report. Giancana, however, opposed a shooting because thegunmen would likely be caught. He favored poison and theproject fell behind schedule.In The Dark Side of Camelot, Hersh notes that Nixon'snational security aide, Marine Gen. Robert E. Cushman Jr.,confirmed Nixon's eagerness for a pre-election strikeagainst Castro. Cushman described Nixon's motives in aninterview with author Peter Wyden for his 1979 book, Bayof Pigs: The Untold Story."The Vice President regarded the operation as a majorpolitical asset," Wyden wrote. "He was eager for the Republican administration to get credit for toppling Castro beforethe election." But the CIA could not pull off the Castro hitin time, and Nixon narrowly lost the election to Kennedy.Yet, after establishing facts about the EisenhowerNixon-CIA cabals, Hersh slides back into his anti-Kennedytheorizing. Musing why the Castro assassination failed inThe evidence is strongerthat the Republicanspushed for Castro's murderin 1960.Mafia KillersIndeed, a careful reading of Hersh's book contradictsone of his own central conclusions: that Kennedy spurred areluctant CIA into the business of assassination. In theiF Magazine * May-June 1998

6fall 1960, Hersh posits that maybe Giancanatipped off theKennedys who somehow foiled the plots. ButHersh thenacknowledges, "no published evidence definitively provesthat Jack Kennedy knew from Giancana aboutthe planningfor Castro's overthrow and assassination."There wasn't much non-definitive evidence, either. Thebest argument that Hersh can muster for thistheory thatKennedy conspired with Giancana to sabotage theEisenhower-Nixon hit on Castro is the fact thatKennedystepped up criticism of the GOP-Cuba policy in late September 1960. That criticism, Hersh asserts, "strongly suggest[s] that someone — perhaps Giancana, Bissell, or [CIAdirector Allen] Dulles — had already told himwhat was go-ing on in Guatemala," where the Cuban exileswere training.Or "perhaps" Kennedy was just trying to hoistVicePresident Nixon on his own anti-communistpetard. Nixonfamously — and disingenuously -- respondedto the tauntsby declaring his deep regard for internationallaw.The record of Eisenhower's assassination scheming isimportant, too, in evaluating Hersh's other claimthat Johnand Robert Kennedy pressured a reluctantCIA into themurder business. While it's clear that the CIAmurder plotsdate back at least to early 1960, Hersh asserts that JohnREV. MOON, PRESIDENT NIXON & A GREEN CARDRev. Sun Myung Moon received his status as a U.S.'lawful permanent resident"-- his valuable "green card"-- 25 years ago, duringPresident Nixon's administration, according to a JusticeDepartment document releasedunder a Freedom of Information Act request.In a letter dated April 7, 1975, James F. Greene, thendeputy commissioner of the Immigration and NaturalizationService, listed the date when Moon obtainedhis "greencard" as April 30, 1973. But it was unclear fromthe letterwhether Moon received any preferential treatment from theNixon administration.By 1973, Moon already was drawing publiccriticismfor engaging in alleged brainwashing of impressionableyoung Americans. Moon was causing concerns,too, withinthe INS by bringing hundreds of foreign followers to theUnited States on tourist visas and then assigning them tomobile fund-raising teams.But Moon also was making himself useful to theNixonadministration by organizing support for theVietnam Warand later for Nixon's defense against the Watergate scandal.Moon's pro-Nixon activities led to a face-to-face WhiteHouse meeting between the South Korean theocrat and thebesieged U.S. president on Feb. I, 1974.According to a 1978 congressional investigative reportOn the so-called Koreagate influencebuying scandal,"Moon had laid thefoundation for politicalwork in this country priorto 1973 [though] his followers became moreopenly involved in political activities in that andsubsequent years.' Thereport added that Moon'sorganization used his followers'internationaltravels to smuggle largesums of money into theMoonUnited States in violationof federal currency laws.That flow of money helped make Moon possibly theU.S. conservative movement's most importantsource of financial support. Since the 1970s, Moon has poured billionsof dollars into conservative causes, includingan estimated 100 million a year to subsidize the daily Washington Timesnewspaper. Moon's organization also funnelled money tomany conservative political figures, from the Rev.Jerry Falwell to former President George Bush. [Fordetails, see iFMagazine, Sept.-Oct., Nov.-Dec. 1997 &Jan.-Feb. 1998]According to other Justice Department recordsrecentlyreleased under FOIA requests, Moon's legal alienstatus hasprotected him and his movement from government investigations into their sources of money and otherlegal questions. But Moon never became a U.S. citizen.Two years ago, Moon denounced the UnitedStates as"Satan's harvest" and moved his base of operation to SouthAmerica. Still, according to U.S. officials, Moonhas not renounced his "green card." RPiF Magazine * May-June 1998

6fall 1960, Hersh posits that maybe Giancana tipped off theKennedys who somehow foiled the plots. But Hersh thenacknowledges, "no published evidencedefinitively provesthat Jack Kennedy knew from Giancanaabout the planningfor Castro's overthrow and assassination."There wasn't much non-definitive evidence, either. Thebest argument that Hersh can musterfor this theory thatKennedy conspired with Giancanato sabotage theEisenhower-Nixon hit on Castro is thefact that Kennedystepped up criticism of the GOP-Cuba policy in late September 1960. That criticism, Hersh asserts, "strongly suggest[s] that someone -- perhaps Giancana, Bissell, or [CIAdirector Allen] Dulles — had already toldhim what was go-ing on in Guatemala," where the Cubanexiles were training.Or "perhaps" Kennedy was just trying to hoist VicePresident Nixon on his own anti-communist petard. Nixonfamously — and disingenuously — responded to the tauntsby declaring his deep regard for international law.The record of Eisenhower's assassination scheming isimportant, too, in evaluating Hersh's other claim that Johnand Robert Kennedy pressured a reluctant CIA into themurder business. While it's clear that theCIA murder plotsdate back at least to early 1960, Hersh asserts that JohnREV. MOON, PRESIDENT NIXON & A GREEN CARDRev. Sun Myung Moon received his status as a U.S.'lawful permanent resident"-- his valuable 'green card'-- 25 years ago, duringPresident Nixon's administration, according to a JusticeDepartment document releasedunder a Freedom of Information Act request.In a letter dated April 7, 1975, JamesF. Greene, thendeputy commissioner of the Immigrationand NaturalizationService, listed the date when Moonobtained his "greencard" as April 30, 1973. But it was unclear from the letterwhether Moon received any preferentialtreatment from theNixon administration.By 1973, Moon already was drawingpublic criticismfor engaging in alleged brainwashingof impressionableyoung Americans. Moon was causing concerns, too, withinthe INS by bringing hundreds of foreign followers to theUnited States on tourist visas and thenassigning them tomobile fund-raising teams.But Moon also was making himself useful to the Nixonadministration by organizing support forthe Vietnam Warand later for Nixon's defense against theWatergate scandal.Moon's pro-Nixon activities led to aface-to-face WhiteHouse meeting between the South Korean theocrat and thebesieged U.S. president on Feb. 1, 1974.According to a 1978 congressional investigative reporton the so-called Koreagate influence-buying scandal,"Moon had laid thefoundation for politicalwork in this country priorto 1973 [though] his followers became moreopenly involved in political activities in that andsubsequent years." Thereport added that Moon'sorganization used his followers'internationaltravels to smuggle largesums of money into theUnited States in violationof federal currency laws.That flow of money helped make Moon possibly theU.S. conservative movement's most important source of financial support. Since the 1970s, Moon has poured billionsof dollars into conservative causes, including an estimated 100 million a year to subsidize the dailyWashington Timesnewspaper. Moon's organization alsofunnelled money tomany conservative political figures, fromthe Rev. Jerry Falwell to former President George Bush. [For details, see iFMagazine, Sept.-Oct., Nov.-Dec.1997 & Jan.-Feb. 1998]According to other Justice Departmentrecords recentlyreleased under FOIA requests, Moon'slegal alien status hasprotected him and his movement fromgovernment investigations into their sources of money andother legal questions. But Moon never became a U.S. citizen.Two years ago, Moon denounced theUnited States as"Satan's harvest" and moved his base ofoperation to SouthAmerica. Still, according to U.S. officials,Moon has not renounced his "green card," RPiF Magazine * May-June 1998

7Kennedy ordered a formalized assassination project beforehe was sworn in."A few senior men in the CIA learned in January[1961] that the incoming president was going to be muchtougher than any outsider could imagine," Hersh writes."Sometime just before his inauguration, President-electKennedy asked Richard Bissell, the CIA's director of clandestine and covert operations, to create inside the agency aformal capacity for political assassination."To "prove" this historical point, Hersh relies heavily onformer CIA officer Samuel Halpern, a loyal spokesman forthe CIA's Old Boy power structure. But Halpern's statements, at best, are quadruple hearsay in which the firsthand players are dead.For instance, Hersh quotes Halpern as quoting CIA officer William Harvey, who died in 1976, as quoting Bissell,who died in 1994, as telling Harvey that Kennedy, whodied in 1963, had personally authorized the CIA "to set up"the ZR/RIFLE assassination program. "After the election,"Halpern told Hersh, 'Kenn* asked Bissell to create a capacity for political assassination. That's why Harvey set upER/RIFL,E."But besides the fact that Eisenhower was still presidentat the time and that Kennedy had no constitutional authority to give such an order, there is the thoroughly documented record that the Eisenhower administration and theCIA already had an aggressive assassination program under way.There are other reasons to be suspicious of Halpern'saccount. A stalwart defender of the spy agency, the CIAveteran was listed second among witnesses to the 1967CIA's I.G. investigation. Yet, the story Halpern told Hershis found no where in that official report — written at a timewhen at least some of the principals were still alive.'Approval by President'But Hersh has a bit more to add He cites contemporaneous notes made by Harvey from a conversation withBissell — which apparently occurred on Jan. 25, 1961, fivedays after JFK's inauguration. The Harvey notes, whichfirst appeared in the 1967 CIA's I.G. report., quote Bissellas stating that the "White House had twice urged me tocreate such a capability."Harvey's notes then indicate that ZR/RfFLE's first targets were Castro, Rafael Trujillo of the Dominican Republic and Patrice Lumumba of the Congo — and that"approval by President" was a CIA requirement for carrying out the killings. The "approval by President" phrase iscrucial to Hersh's argument that Kennedy initiated the assassination plots.But, as Hersh writes only a few pages earlier, all threetargets had been selected for elimination "in the last fewmonths of the Eisenhower administration.'" In other words,the "approval byPresident' apparently had come fromEisenhower.Still, Hersh laysthe blame forZR/RIFLE on Kennedy. Hersh insertsinto Han ey's notation — before thewords "White Househad twice urged."-- the bracketed adjective "Kennedy."Hersh does not exKennedyplain the foundationfor that crucial insert. Yet, given therecord of the Eisenhower White Housepressing for an assassination capabilityfor nearly a year,Bissell's commentcould more logicallybe ascribed to theWhite House as aninstitution, not specifically to any oneoccupant.That essentiallywas the conclusionCastroof the Church investigation. When askedto explain the White House role in Harvey's plotting, "Bissell said he merely informed [Kennedy's new national security adviser McGeorge] Bundy of the capability and that thecontext was a briefing by him [Bissell] and not urging byBundy," the Church report said.Bundy also recalled that Bissell simply had describedthe "executive action capability" as "some kind of standbycapability" already in place. Bissell further testified that hehad no meetings with the incoming administration on substantive matters, prior to the inauguration. During theirlives, John and Robert Kennedy also denied granting approval for the assassinations.Operation ZapataWhile Hersh may have hyped the evidence of JohnKennedy's guilt, it is equally fair to say that Kennedy is notwithout blame for the long-running tragedy of U.S.-Cubanrelations. He did let the Bay of Pigs invasion go forward,though it was a clear violation of international law and re-iF Magazine * May-June 1998

7Kennedy ordered a formalized assassination project beforehe was sworn in."A few senior men in the CIA learned in January[196I] that the incoming president was going to be muchtougher than any outsider could imagine," Hersh writes."Sometime just before his inauguration, President-electKennedy asked Richard Bissell, the CIA's director of clandestine and covert operations, to create inside the agency aformal capacity for political assassination."To "prove" this historical point, Hersh relies heavily onformer CIA officer Samuel Halpern, a loyal spokesman forthe CIA's Old Boy power structure. But Halpern's statements, at best, are quadruple hearsay in which the firsthand players are deadFor instance, Hersh quotes Halpern as quoting CIA officer William Harvey, who died in 1976, as quoting Bissell,who died in 1994, as telling Harvey that Kennedy, whodied in 1963, had personally authorized the CIA "to set up"the ZRJRIFLE assassination program. "After the election,"Halpern told Hersh, 'Kennelly asked Bissell to create a capacity for political assassination. That's why Harvey set upZR/RIFLE,"But besides the fact that Eisenhower was still presidentat the time and that Kennedy had no constitutional authority to give such an order, there is the thoroughly documented record that the Eisenhower administration and theCIA already had an aggressive assassination program under way.There are other reasons to be suspicious of Halpern'saccount. A stalwart defender of the spy agency, the CIAveteran was listed second among witnesses to the 1967CIA's I.G. investigation. Yet, the story Halpern told Hershis found no where in that official report — written at a timewhen at least some of the principals were still alive.'Approval by President'But Hersh has a bit more to add. He cites contemporaneous notes made by Harvey from a conversation withBissell — which apparently occurred on Jan. 25, 1961, fivedays after JFKIs inauguration. The Harvey notes, whichfirst appeared in the 1967 CIA's I.G. report, quote Bissellas stating that the "White House had twice urged me tocreate such a capability."Harvey's notes then indicate that ZR/REFLE's first targets were Castro, Rafael Trujillo of the Dominican Republic and Patrice Lumumba of the Congo — and that"approval by President" was a CIA requirement for carrying out the killings. The "approval by President" phrase iscrucial to Hersh's argument that Kennedy initiated the assassination plots.But, as Hersh writes only a few pages earlier, all threetargets had been selected for elimination "in the last fewmonths of the Eisenhower administration." In other words,the "approval byPresident" apparently had come fromEisenhower.Still, Hersh laysthe blame forZR/RIFLE on Kennedy. Hersh insertsinto Harvey's notation --

Dwight Eisenhower, Vice President Richard Nixon and the CIA brass were already hard at work arranging assassina- . nearly a year before Kennedy became president. Early in 1960, for instance, the Eisenhower adminis-tration concluded that "unless Fidel and Raul Castro and Che Guevara coul