◆ SpookStack

them were shot down -- or three of them were shot down. They were just sending guys as fodder into the cannon. It was just unbelievable! And how that decision was made, I don't know ••• I remember going over to the operations room, and I remember going back over to the commo shack ••• at the teletype ••• at the hard copy that matched mine, and ••• Well, I'll never forget that few hours; and then it got worse ••• each day •.. and that was the end. Each day it got worse -- you could end your story right there. In fact, you could almost end your story with the defection part, because" air was the key to that operation. 122/ Being on the scene with the pilots who were going to conduct the air strike, Thorsrud was most directly affected. However, other of the principals in Project JMATE obviously reflected at some length about the cancellation of the second strike. Mr. Bissell, one of the principal actors in the scene in Dean Rusk's office the night of 16 April 1961, offered the follow- ing comments which, if correct, help to explain Rusk's position: [Adolf Berle] was quite an activist. Now Rusk himself was not. Rusk was always afraid of this operation ... Rusk was all for a powerful guerrilla effort -- anything that could be done along that line. But, he consistently argued for reducing the sound level, and, as you know, had every- thing to do with abandoning the TRINIDAD site ... Rusk's influence always was to avoid the noisy actions. Do everything - 281 -