◆ SpookStack

This volume critically examines the investigation of the Bay of Pigs operation conducted by General Maxwell D. Taylor at the behest of President John F. Kennedy during the period from 22 April - 13 June 1961. An almost immediate spate of rumors and leaks were that CIA's blunders were responsible for the "debacle." The relatively recent pUblication of most of the Taylor Committee's report probably will do little to change that impression among the general public.· This volume reviews in detail the testimony of the wit- nesses who appeared before the Committee. It focuses on the errors of fact, the omissions of critical information, the exchanges between witnesses and" interrogators, and it assesses the validity of the Committee's findings on the basis of the documentary evidence available at the time of the investigation. The failure of the anti-Castro operation PLUTO would m~ the definitive break between the Kennedy and Eisenhower administrations. As a youthful, liberal, and untested Kennedy bro~ght together the likes of Dean Rusk, Robert McNamara, Douglas Dillon, Adlai Stevenson, and Chester Bowles at the cabinet, or near-cabinet level, he was faced with the task of orchestrating their endeavors wi~h Theodore Sorensen, McGeorge Bundy, Walt Rostow, Richard Goodwin, Arthur Schlesinger, and Sargent Shriver among other White House advisers~ and, * Operation Zapata (Frederick, MD: University Publications of America, 1981).