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, WP ~ECrrET forcefully as being sure their host would object. I asked if he was proposing overt in- tervention by us armed forces. He said absolutely not. The essence of his plan would be to land in Cuba, presumably in the next month or two, a force of 600 trained Cubans, following up this land- ing with additional Cuban elements and then installing a government in the bridge- head which would calIon us for financial and logistics support. He mentioned a number of names which were unfamiliar to me of Cubans who he said are politically unblemished in Cuba, neither pinks nor reactionary rightists.* 1I On 30 November 1960, a Special Group meeting was held at which time Gordon Gray: * Considering that discussions within the Agency and within the Special Group had only recently arrived at the figure of 600 men for an invasion brigade, plus the fact that this brigade would establish a bridge- head from which a provisional government opposed to Castro might be announced, one might speculate on the source of Pawley's information. Jake Esterline has tended to denigrate the role played by Pawley during the course of the Bay of Pigs operation; but, nonethe- less, throughout the course of the operatio, Jake was charged with maintaining close liaison with Pawley. JMATE records indicate not only the numerous face-to- face meetings between Pawley and Esterline during the course of the operation, but also reflect an amazing number of telephone conversations between the two during the life of the operation. In terms of the operational plan per se, Esterline appeared to be most cagy in handling this subject during the dis- cussions with Pawley. The recorded conversations focus on the potential leadership for the FRO -- with Pawley's "best" leadership choices usually being far to the right. - 168 - l:QP SEEItCf