◆ SpookStack

To say the least, exchanges of this nature were confusion worst confounded. The greatest part of the confusion lay among the committee members, ~articularly as General Lemnitzer was quite correct in that the switch from Trinidad to Zapata had nothing to do with the selection of air targets. The change " had been made in large part because of the insistence of President Kennedy, supported by Secretary of State Rusk and Thomas Mann, the Assistant Secretary of State for Latin American Affairs, that a site be selected to support the story that the air attacks were originating from Cuban bases by Cuban defectors. Additionally, the President had insisted 133/ on a less "spectacular" and "quiet" night landing. Su~gestions by the CSG that General Lemnitzer and the JCS had favored the switch from Trinidad to Zapata were in no way related to the actual situation. On this point the service Chiefs refused to become the whipping boys for the member of the CSG most interested in protecting President Kennedy's reputation--his brother, the Attorney General. General Lemnitzer also was better informed about the T-33 situation than were previous witnesses who had suggested that the T-33s were not known to be armed. Even here, General Lemnitzer's knowledge was not as precise as it should have been--particularly in view of the available information on the T-33s that the United States had sold to Cuba. General Lemnitzer correctly pointed out that the Hawker Sea 142