Conversation with Mr. Dulles
Memorandum of conversation on the planning and execution of the Bay of Pigs operation.
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OCR Page 1 of 12SECRET
EYES ONLY.
MR. DULLES
(The following notes are not a verbatim record, but
represent the general substance of the statements made.)
QUESTION: Was there any doubt about the requirement for
military action against Castro?
MR. DULLES: There was no doubt as far as I can recall
in the mind of anyone including the White House, State, Defense,
and ourselves, as to the need for action against Castro, and
the feeling was that probably military action was the only kind
of action that could be effective.
QUESTION: In your own mind, how did you evaluate the
probability of success?
MR. DULLES: I realized the operation was a risky one;
that you could not insure success; but I rated reasonably high,
certainly 50% or over, the probability of being able to effect
a beachhead and to hold it for a considerable period of time.
QUESTION: What was your estimate of the possibility of
an uprising following the invasion?
MR. DULLES: I never gave a great deal of weight to the
idea of a large popular uprising. I viewed it in this way:
that if one had the beachhead and the airbases, we would then
be able to resuppiy pockets of reslatance in various parts of
Cuba, thereby getting arms in the hands of a great many anti-
Castro people. I don't believe in popular uprisings by unarmed
people when you have a military force in being, such as the
militia. I did not rate the militia very highly as an organized
fighting force. It was, however; entirely effective against
unarmed civilians I never felt that we should call for an
uprising or that we should expect or desire an immediate popular
uprising. I had had a great deal of experience during the war
in France when I was working with the French underground, and
I remembered how hard we had tried to keep the French from waging
frontal battles against the Germans; they would do it from time
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