◆ SpookStack

was probably the most serious as it eliminated the last favorable oppor~unity to destroy the Castro air force on the ground. The cancellation seems to have resulted partly from the failure to make the air strike plan entirely clear in advance to the President and the Secretary of State, but, more importantly, from the failure to carry the issue to the President when the opportunity was presented and explain to him with proper force the probable military consequences of a last-minute cancellation. 10. The flight of the CARIBE and ATLANTICO might have been prevented had more attention been paid in advance to the control of the ships to include the placing of some Americans aboard. The CIA officer responsible for all the ships involved was a I Iwho was aboard the LCI BLAGAR with no means to control the freighters, or indeed to locate them after they disappeared. Only the initiative of the U.S. Navy in the vicinity brought them back to the scene of action. The absence of Americans on board these vessels was an application of the general order to keep Americans out of the combat area. This order had been violated in a few cases but it was apparently not considered important to do so in the case of the freighters. 11. The lack of full appreciation of the ammunition situation at the end of D-plus-l in the CIA Operational Headquarters was largely the result of the difficulty of keeping 265