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or "some of his [JFK's] principal aides." McGeorge Bundy was probably the recipient of the Hawkins-Bissell message calling for two strikes, for Bundy wrote: I have been a skeptic about Bissell's [Cuban] operation, but now I think we are on the edge of a good answer. I think that Bissell and Hawkins have done an honorable job of meeting the proper criticisms and cautions of the Department of State. ~* There is, however, evidence to indicate that President Kennedy himself was involved at least twice -- on Sand 6 April 1961 -- in discussions of the planned defection operation and the concomitant pre- D-Day air strike. David W. Gray** specified that on S April, the President, Secretary McNamara, General Lemnitzer, and State and CIA representatives met at the White House and discussed, among other things, "fake defections and preliminary [air] strikes." Sal * In response to a question concerning the validity of Hawkins's statement that he (Hawkins), Bissell, and Barnes hadorigi~ated the D-2 strike and defector opera- tion and that the President had been briefed on both D-2 and D-Day strike plans, Bissell told Sherman Kent (on 23-24 March 1977) that Hawkins was correct, except as noted above, that Bissell could not recall if it was the President or "some of his principal aides" who had been given the detailed plans. ** Major General (USA), Chief, Subsidiary Activities Division, J-S, and the JCS liaison officer with the JMATE project. - 181 -