◆ SpookStack

it has been me.ntioned••• and that is the thing we've learned bitterly ourselves, that we cannot conduct an operation where political decision is going to interfere with military judgment••• To this Robert Kennedy responded--for whatever it meant: "My friend you sound like military men have been shouting down 2/ the hall" and then quickly changed the subject. The official transcript of this meeting omitted Esterline's reference to the impact of political decisions on the failure of the operation.* Toward the end of the first meeting, Taylor and Kennedy debated Burke and Bissell on the merits of the planned operation and whether or not the Kennedy administration would have gone alon9 with the proposed invasion plan had there been discussion • Haying already done. his best to prove (A Thousand . Days)· that Presi4ent Kennedy was blameless for the failure at the Bay of Pigs, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. also has attempted to picture Robert Kennedy as the White Knight of the Bay of Pigs investigation. $chlesinge~ noted, for example that the Attorney General "was far more critical ••• of the military•• than perhaps Maxwell Taylor wanted to be,1I and that "the transcript Jof the Taylor Committee meetings] shows that the Attorney General took the lead in exarning witnesses. His unsparing questions dis- closed how pathetically ill-considered the adventure was. 1I 3/ . 2841 l