◆ SpookStack

was going to take off, and nobody told him to stay home and mind the store. Belaboring the obvious, he said that he didn't think there were going to be any changes made in the planned D-Day activit~. The point was, however, that Dulles "left Washington around Saturday afternoon" on 15 April 1961, well after the time that the D-2 air strike had taken place and Adlai Stevenson was in the United Nations telling the world--truthfully he thought-- that the attack on the three air fields had been the work of internal defectors from the Cuban Air Force. It was predictable even before Dulles left this country that CIA was going to be charged with the responsibility of the air raid.* Certainly if anyone needed to be on hand during the course of the invasion, it was the DCI--the person in CIA who had the easiest access to, and highest credibility with, the President of the United States. The Agency has long been remiss for its failure in this case to call a spade. Allen Dulles's absence during the launching of the Bay of Pigs operation was inexcusable. Moreover, that Dulles reportedly told Sherman Kent that he * That Dulles was in Puerto Rico obviously was going to make no difference about the charges which would be made against him. At 1337 hours (Cuban time) on 17 April 1961, Havana radio was broadcasting that Dulles was directing the inva- sion from Puerto Rico. 156/ 1/ ~ OJ