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Nicaragua 1 and if they were going to be used, they would have had to be operated out of Key West--obviously in contra- 138/* diction to the Presidential policy of deniability. In contrast to the other members of the Joint Chiefs who were firm in assurances to the committee that the JCS had properly discharged its responsibilities to the President during the course of the Bay of Pigs operation, Admiral Burke's response to this question was refreshingly frank: This is a most difficult question. My answer can be misinterpreted badly. According to what had happened before and under the way the Chiefs ope,rated before and in view of the procedures which had been set up, yes, they did discharge their responsibility; but morally, they did not. In looking back on it now, I regret several things very much, personally. I regret personally that I did not insist upon things that I felt uneasy apout. I felt uneasy about being briefed instead of having something in writing so that I could wrestle with it. I regret I didn't do that. I should have in- sisted. 140/ Both Admiral Burke and General Lemnitzer were more forthcoming concerning the JCS relationship with the Kennedy Administration during oral interviews they gave in the mid- to-late 1970s. A JCS history states: * Admiral Burke's response re the turn over of T-33s was more accurate than the response J.C. King had made when the same question came up during General Lemnitzer's testimony--at that time King speculated that there probably was a shortage of pilots. 139./ 147