The
Lansdale Memo 16 March 1962 Re-evaluated
The recent PBS documentary series on Ernest Hemingway reminded me of The Nation article The Old Man and the CIA.
After
re-reading David Corn and Gus Russo’s article in The Nation – The Old Man and
the CIA – in which they imply a single paragraph of an important memo is proof
that President Kennedy and RFK wanted to kill Fidel Castro, I decided to read the entire memo and Larry Haapanen, who supplied it to Corn and Russo, was kind enough to give me a copy.
The
purpose of the meeting the memo concerns was to review the revised “Guidelines for Operation
Mongoose,” – an operation that General Lansdale was in charge of. The purpose of Mongoose was the overthrow of
the Castro regime in Cuba.
Present:
The President, General Taylor, the Attorney General, McGeorge Bundy, Mr.
Gilpatrick, General Lemnitzer, Mr. McCone, Alexis Johnson, myself. At the White
House 1600 hours, 16 March, 1962. ]
This
memo is significant for more than what they write about in The Nation.
It’s
timing 16 March 1962 is a year after the Bay of Pigs and seven months before
the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
But Corn
and Russo only quote from one paragraph from the memo, and don’t bother to
provide a link or the full memo for you to read. I for one don’t trust Gus Russo, whose book
Brothers at Arms falsely portrays JFK and RFK and pushes the blatantly false
cover-story that Fidel Castro was behind the assassination of the President.
The
memo, written by Lansdale, begins with him asking CIA director John McCone if
Richard Helms and William Harvey, the top two CIA operational officers, could
join the meeting as they were waiting outside the Oval Office in the hall of
the White House.
McCone
asked Lansdale if he had any differences of opinion with them, and Lansdale
replied, “we were in agreement on operational procedures, as far as the
guidelines would permit operations. McCone then said they should stay outside.
McCone
asked Lansdale if he was in agreement with the concept contained in the
“Guidelines,” and he replied that the guidelines “…didn’t fit the conditions
inside Cuba that were becoming more apparent to the operational people,
including operatives for whom I had respect; the chances of fracturing te
regime and creating a valid revolution is becoming more feasible. I felt that
we needed much more freedom to work on the revolutionary possiblities than is
possible under the guidelines.”
So Lansdale thinks the Mongoose Guidelines are too strict, and he wants more freedom of action.
The
President then came in.
JFK had
read the revised Mongoose Guidelines the night before, so when he was handed a
copy he put it down on a table. There is also a mention of a meeting the
previous November. I will get copies of both the November meeting minutes and
the revised Mongoose Guidelines.
The
President then listened to General Taylor give a brief report on developments, and
asked Lansdale what was being done.
Lansdale
said, “I gave him a quick summary of the intelligence-collection plan through
July, telling him that this was the Special Group’s plan, and describing the
work so far of CIA and Defense. I told him that we finally were starting to get
a really good team together for the operation, after much effort to get the
U.S. pointed in the right direction. I noted that agents were to be trained or
experienced in guerrilla warfare, that we needed U.S. military participation
for support, including air-resupply and maritime actions.”
He asked
for details. Both General Lemnitzer and I told him about “sheep-dipping” U.S.
military personnel, “sanitizing” equipment, and use of U.S. bases.
Please
see a definition of “sheep-dipping” U.S. military personnel. - According to the Urban Dictionary - Sheep dipping is "commonly used in intelligence circles is a way of saying someone has been given an alternate identity. The best known example being Air America, but also in many other covert ops applications....Stripping a soldier of is military uniform and identification so he can pose as a civilian during a covert mission."
The example given is "Lee Harvey Oswald was 'sheep dipped' in order to carry on his involvement in the CIA's clandestine activities."
Another example from the JFK Assassination records is Ralph Meyers, a relation to Jack Ruby's Chicago friend Larry Meyers, who visited Dallas on the weekend of the assassination. Ralph served in the Army and was assigned to a NSA position at a U2 and nuke missile base in Turkey. He was then relieved of his military service, worked as a bus driver in Chicago before working as a journalist in Mexico when Oswald was there.
Lansdale continues: “I
pointed out that PT boat silhouettes required a Navy base as a cover, even if we
called it “R & E,” that air re-supply would be done at night from about
800-feet which entailed some risk which the Air Force was now assessing. He
asked about maritime runs of the PT-boats; I explained our problems of “mother”
ships, the LSD’s and 200-300 man crews, which we are trying to lick.”
“I
remarked that the thesis of creating a revolution inside Cuba looked just as
valid as ever, and that CIA professionals were now agreeing more and more that
both resistance and the possibility of fracturing the regime pointed to some real
opportunities. I noted that we were checking out a number of leads, including
relatives of Fidel Castro, to assess the practical opportunities for splitting
away some of the regime. If we could get some of the top Cuban leaders, and
some units of the Cuban security forces to take to the hills, we would have
conditions which would need quick exploitation – and we would have to be ready
for this. I noted that we would have to supply arms and equipment; it is
possible that this could be done without U.S. military intervention, but we
must be ready to intervene with U.S. forces, if necessary.”
The
President asked if U.S. military intervention was an issue which the Special
Group was posing to him now. Taylor and the Special Group promptly said, “no.”
“General
Lemnitzer commented that the military had contingency plans for U.S.
intervention. Also, it had plans for creating plausible pretexts to use force,
with the pretexts either attacks on U.S. aircraft or a Cuban action in Latin
America for which we would retaliate."
So Lemnitzer pitches his Northwoods Plan for staging a fake attack on US base or ship - ala Remember the Maine, in order to establish a pretext to attack Cuba, for which he was later fired for.
"The President said bluntly that we were
not discussing the use of U.S. military force, that General Lemnitzer might
find the U.S. so engaged in Berlin or elsewhere that he couldn’t use the
contemplated 4 divisions in Cuba. So, we cannot say that we are able not to
make a decision on the use of U.S. military force.”
As they
discuss during the meeting, one of the problems with formenting a revolt in
Cuba and getting disenchanted Cuban government administratiors and military
officers to revolt and form a coup d’etat was the fact that most of those
disenchanted with Castro had left or were leaving Cuba for the United States.
“The
President was then asked about immigration. Wouldn’t it be better to shut our
doors to the people trying to get out, so they would be forced to stay and take
action against the regime? I pointed out that we were still giving them only
two choices: either to escape to the U.S. and freedom, or to stay as slaves.
Once we are committed to helping them stage a revolt, provide arms, and are
willing to go all the way in being sure that they win, ten we might consider
closing out doors – because we then will be helping them gain teir freedom at
home. Now with 2,000 people fleeing every week, we would be foolish
to remove this symbol of our sympathy and cut off the source of intelligence
information and recruits. We must give the Cubans the chance and the help to
free themselves.”
Then
there’s the key paragraph that Corn and Russo say is proof of JFK and RFK
desire to have Castro killed.
“The
Attorney General then mentioned Mary Hemingway, something on reports that
Castro was drinking heavily in disgruntlement over the way things were going,
and the opportunities offered by the ‘shrine’ to Hemingway.”
Now that’s
the end of the Kennedy’s statements about this – Mary Hemingway mentioned that
Castro was drinking heavily in disgruntlement over the way things were going,
and we only have Lansdale’s interpetation of “the opportunities offered by the “shrine”
to Hemingway.
What
opportunities could there be? To kill him there? I don’t think Mary Hemingway,
a friend of Castro, would apprecitate that, and there are no other documents in
the CIA records that reflect on this or their making plans for any
opportunities the shrine presented.
But to
Corn and Russo – this begs the question: “Did John and Robert Kennedy plot
murder? For decades, a clear answer to that dicey question has evaded
historians, while Kennedy loyalists have fought hard to prevent such a stain
from befouling the memory of the brothers.”
“But a thirty-nine-year-old Pentagon
memorandum–found three years ago by a college professor…” – A College professor
who disagrees with their intepretation that to them “….–suggests that Jack and Bobby
discussed and apparently sanctioned the development of a possible assassination
attempt against Fidel Castro during a 1962 meeting in the Oval Office. And–in a
weirder-than-fiction twist–the scheme they considered involved Ernest
Hemingway’s farm outside Havana.”
What?
Where is that “suggestion”? Nowhere. And where is the “apparently sanctioned
the development of a possible assassination attempt against Fidel Castro”?
Now we
know that the CIA had a number of plans to kill Castro with a high powered
rifle as he drove in an open jeep by areas he was known to frequent – two are
mentioned in the Pathfinder Plan – Castro’s frequeting the Bay of Pigs, where
he apparently kept a boat – and the duPont’s Xandau estate where he was known
to frequent. But both of those plans called for the NPIC National Photo
Interpeteration Center technicians contribute to the plans with U2 and ground
photos of the area, and blueprints of the buildings in the area. No such thing
was done with Hemingway’s farm or shrine.
Lansdale
continues: “I commented that this was a conversation Ed Morrow had with Mary
Hemingway, that we had similar reports from other sources, and that this was
worth assessing firmly and pursing vigorouslly. If there are grounds for
action, CIA had some invaluable assets which might well be committed for such
an effort.”
First
off, the event at Hemingway’s farm, where Mary met Castro, was eight months
previous, and there were no indications Castro would ever return there, and
apparently didn’t. What other opportunities were there? None.
“McCone
asked if his operational people were aware of this:
Now his
two top “operational people” – Helms and Harvey, were right outside the door,
but McCone wouldn’t allow them in, and according to Lansdale, later told the
president this.
Lansdale
said, “I told him that we had discussed this, that they agreed the subject was
worth vigorous development, and that we were in agreement that the matter was
so delicate and sensitive that it shouldn’t be surfaced…
Lansdale’s description of the
Hemingway plan as “so delicate and sensitive” that its specifics should be
hidden from the Special Group is another tip-off that the operation involved
assassination.
But that’s Lansdale’s description of
the Hemingway plan – a plan that doesn’t exist on paper, not JFK’s plan or RFK’s
plan.
Corn and Russo write, “It is not clear what specific
operation Robert Kennedy was referring to at the March 16 meeting.” Robert
Kennedy never referred to a specific operation – he brought up the subject of
Morrow and Mary Hemingway, it is Lansdale who mentions operations.
And they
agree, “Neither Halpern nor Shackley recalls receiving orders for a mission
involving the Hemingway farm. Those Mongoose records that have been
declassified do not refer to an assassination attempt at the Hemingway home,” ….and
“Assassinating Castro at the Hemingway site does seem far-fetched. But in the secret
war against Castro, the US government entertained many bizarre ideas, including
dusting his shoes with a chemical that would cause his beard to fall out.”
“That’s the giveaway,” says Peter
Kornbluh, a senior analyst at the National Security Archive and a specialist on
US documents regarding Cuba.
“This is the closest thing to a
smoking gun that has been declassified. Only assassination would be taboo for
open discussion at the Special Group, which routinely planned sabotage,
violence and chaos to undermine Castro.”
If this is the “closest thing to a
smoking gun that has been declassified, indicating that JFK approved a plan to
kill Fidel Castro, then there is no smoking gun.
Samuel Halpern, who was the
number-two to the officer who ran the CIA end of Operation Mongoose, calls the
document “as close as we’re likely to get” to conclusive proof. And a former
CIA director says, “The language of the memo speaks for itself. The only thing
Robert Kennedy can be referring to is the assassination of Castro. This
paragraph should never have been written.”
Well Samuel Halpern was an assistant
to CIA official Desmond FitzGerald, who was encouraging AMLASH to kill Castro –
with a high powered rifle. Halpern and FitzGerald were having lunch together in
Geogetown when they learned of the assassination, and as they were leaving FitzGerald
remarked that he wondered wheather “his Cubans” – the Pathfinder Cubans trained
at JMWAVE, were invlved, as they were the ones paid and trained to kill Castro.
And I think we should be wondering
the same thing.
