◆ SpookStack

'1' In light of his comment to Kent, his greater concern about . 1 than -a~b-=o-::-:uCOt------'t=-"h::-:e=--s=-t:':::-a=-=t=e----::::o-:l:f,----:o:t::-'l:h::-:e=-----:l.=·n=v=a:O:-=s-orl.=o=n-----;<l.=mm=eo-:a:r:l.=· a=-t~e:;o-orly~=u=p=o=n~his return from Puerto Rico, and his woeful performance both as a member and witness before the Taylor Committee suggest the onset of the mental deterioration reported in Leonard Mosley's volume on the Dulleses. 158/ Mosley makes reference to Dulles's plan to respond to the versions of the Bay of Pigs operation which had appeared, or were about to appear, in articles and books about the Kennedy Administration by Theodore Sorensen and Arthur M. Schlesinger. According to Mosley, Eleanor Dulles, Allen's sister, and Dulles's daughter, Joan, persuaded Mr. Dulles to withhold the article because "Allen had already IJune 1965] begun to lose command over his memory and ideas. If it were ever to be printed, it would not be a credit to him, be- cause it was from a man who had lost about thirty percent of his faculties." The Allen Dulles Papers held by the Princeton University contain copies of three draft manuscripts of the proposed article written in 1965 and entitled "My Answer on the Bay of Pigs." The copies bear the following caveat: NOTE REGARDING THIS FILE AND TO BE KEPT WITH IT (~e article by Allen Welsh Dulles on the Bay of Pigs, ana background material): Mrs. Allen W. Dulles wishes to state that her husba.nd decided not to publish this article, because there was so much more in his favor he could have said, if he had been at liberty to do so, that the material was inadequate. Signed for Mrs. Dulles F. Garner Ranney Archivist to Mr. Dulles Review of the manuscripts confirms the wisdom of withholding ~ublication. There is no question, however, that many of Mr. Dulles's criticism of both Sorensen and Schlesinger were well taken and much deserved, if for no other reason than as pointed out by Mr. Dulles, neither man was involved in the operational planning or was in on many of the confidential sessions with the President and others to which Dulles was a party. Sorensen, by his own admission, played no part in the Bay of Pigs activity, but this did not deter him from becoming an "authority." Schlesinger, however, came to be regarded as "the authority" on the Bay of Pigs with the publication of A Thousand Days. He sUbsequently would criticize both Dulles and Bissell for their failure to say anything to the Taylor Committee about the assassination plots against Castro. 159/ As noted in Volume 3 of this history, however, the assa~nation activity was separate and apart frqm,the Bay of Pl.gs action1 and Jake Esterline, Chief, WH/4, heicl. 167 ':.' no knowledge of the plot. . .•~.J.