◆ SpookStack

of the Department of Oefenseand the JMATE principals concerning 0-2. To CIA, .the D-2 operation was aimed at the complete destruction of the FAR -- and when it was apparent that that objective had not been achieved, Thorsrud requested permission for a follow up strike on D-l to complete the job. Unfortunately, at least two senior military officers displayed varying degrees of ignorance concerning D-2 objectives, with perhaps the strangest comment of all being made by Admiral Arleigh Burke, Chief of Naval Operations, member of the JCS, and a most active participant in Special Group meetings on the anti-Castro effort. In testi- fying before the Taylor committee, of which he himself was a member, Burke spoke as follows about 0-2: None of the Chiefs [JCS] felt that the 0-2 strikes were good militarily, but they could see that it was an important aspect of the plan politically. The D-2 strikes were not built or designed to knock out any great amount of the Cuban Air Force. This was to be done by the D-Oay strikes. ~* More abysmally ignorant than Admiral Burke, was the Chairman of the JCS, General Lyman Lemnitzer. Testifying before the Taylor Committee a day in * Emphasis by author. - 227 -