2. Responsibility for the operation
It is generally known that Zapata was a CIA-planned and CIA-run operation from its beginnings at the end of the Eisenhower administration, but it is interesting to see how Dulles tried to weasel out of the responsibility. At one point in the testimony, Admiral Burke reminds Dulles that the actual conduct of the operation "was all in one place and that was in CIA" (p. 249):
Dulles: But that was done by military personnel.
Burke: But not under our command structure.
Gen. Lemnitzer, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, puts it more clearly, when he is asked if he "or the Joint Chiefs were the defenders of the military aspects of the operation, or was it CIA?" (p. 323):
Lemnitzer: The defenders of the military parts of the plan were the people who produced it and that was CIA. We were providing assistance and assuring the feasibility of the plan.
Admiral Burke's answer the next day is equally clear (p. 347):
Question: Did you regard the Joint Chiefs as defenders and spokesmen of the military aspects of this operation?
Burke: No. That's one of the unfortunate misunderstandings. We sent military people over to CIA, but CIA gave the orders, and they had the people, and they had control. We examined the plan and that was it.