The D-Day Air Strikes
6. The D-Day air strikes
Now we come to the crux of the matter--the D-Day air strikes. The mythology has it that President Kennedy canceled these strikes at the last minute for fear that the U.S. role would be obvious, especially after the embarrassment of theD-2 strikes. Some speculate that Adlai Stevenson, the UN ambassador, who had not known about the D-2 strikes and vociferously denied any U.S. part in them at the UN meeting on April 15, felt humiliated and convinced Kennedy to change his mind about the second strike. This is patently absurd, since the one thing we know for sure is that Kennedy gave final and formal approval of the D-Day strikes at noon on Sunday, April 16. What happened after that is cloudy, but again the mythology has it that Kennedy changed his mind late Sunday evening. There is no clear evidence of this, and it certainly doesn't jive with Robert Kennedy’s report that the President said on D-Day (Mon., April 17):
...that he'd rather be called an aggressor than a bum, so he was prepared to go as far as necessary to assure success, but we were always about five or six or seven hours behind on our information ... We didn't have any idea what the situation was there. The President said he used to walk around on that Whitehouse lawn thinking he'd like to do something if he knew what was going on.
What was clear all along, though, to Kennedy and everyone else, was that the D-Day air strikes, which would destroy Castro's small air force, were absolutely essential to the success of the invasion. Bundy says
It was clearly understood that the Air battle should be won (p. 177).
The military understood it too:
Shoup: However, one thought was predominate. You must achieve air superiority or you are not going to be able to get ashore (p. 244).
White: Well, the number one thing that I felt was vital was surprise [D-Day] air attacks on the several airfields (p. 255).
Lemnitzer: ...I'd like to point out that the D-2 air strike was never expected to wipe out Castro's entire force. It was the D-Day strike which was the important one (p. 324).
It is also clear, though seldom mentioned in the literature, that the order to cancel the air strikes, after Kennedy had formally approved them, came not from Kennedy himself but from McGeorge Bundy. Taylor relates the sequence of events:
At about 9:30 P.M. on 16 April, Mr. McGeorge Bundy, Special Assistant to the President, telephoned General C.P. Cabell of CIA to inform him that the dawn airstrikes the following morning should not be launched until they could be conducted from a strip within the beachhead. Mr. Bundy indicated that any further consultation with regard to this matter should be with the Secretary of State (Memo. 1, para. 43).
General Cabell, accompanied by Mr. Bissell, went at once to Secretary Rusk’s office, arriving there about 10:15 P.M. There they received a telephone call from [deleted reference to one of the brigade commanders] who, having learned of the cancellation of the D-Day strikes, called to present his view of the gravity of the decision. General Cabell and Mr. Bissell then tried to persuade the Secretary of State to permit the dawn D-Day strikes. The Secretary indicated that there were policy considerations against air strikes before the beachhead airfield was in the hands of the landing force and completely operational, capable of supporting the raids. The two CIA representatives pointed out the risk of loss to the shipping if the Castro Air Force were not neutralized by the dawn strikes. They also stressed the difficulty which the B-26 airplanes would have in isolating the battlefield after the landing, as well as the heavier scale of air attack to which the disembarked forces would be exposed. The Secretary of State indicated subsequently that their presentation led him to feel that while the air strikes were indeed important, they were not vital. However, he offered them the privilege of telephoning the President in order to present their views to him. They saw no point in speaking personally to the President and so informed the Secretary of State. The order canceling the D-Day strikes was dispatched to the departure field in Nicaragua, arriving when the pilots were in their cockpits ready for take-off. The Joint Chiefs of Staff learned of the cancellation at varying hours the following morning (Memo. 1, para. 44).
The questions raised by this account are:
1) Did the cancellation order come from the President? If so, what had happened in the preceding nine and a half hours to make him change his mind? If not, who did it come from?
2) Why did Bundy refer Cabell to Rusk for "further consultation"? As Rusk shows in his testimony, he was hopelessly ill-informed about the operation and about the importance of the air strikes in particular, and since when does the President go to bed in the midst of a crisis of this magnitude and leave the final decision to the Secretary of State? This does not fit either Kennedy’s character or the structure of the national security hierarchy. Strictly speaking, that is by law, the Secretary of State would not have to know anything about a covert CIA operation, but Bundy, as the National Security Advisor, had to know all about it. That was his job, to act as the President's personal and direct link with the CIA.
3) How could Cabell and Bissell have failed to convince Rusk of the importance of the air strikes? Taylor says they pointed out the "risk of loss to the shipping" and the "heavier scale of air attack" from Castro's planes if the strikes were canceled, but this was understated to the point of being misleading. The B-26 bombers, though equipped with machine guns, would be hopelessly out-maneuvered by Castro's T-33's, which would wreak havoc on both the troops and the supply ships if any of them got off the ground.
The plan was to destroy them--all of them--on the ground. This was understood by everyone, including Bundy, according to Col. L. Fletcher Prouty, who was the Air Force liaison officer with the CIA at the time, though not directly involved in the operation (personal communication). Taylor, however, says the importance of the T-33s "was not fully appreciated in advance" (p. 37). It is hard to imagine how this was possible, since the T-33s were U.S.-made planes and, though they were originally intended as trainers, had been equipped for combat on other occasions. The testimony is contradictory here:
Question: In the performance of the T-33s, were you surprised at how effective they were?
Gen. White: I was surprised to find that they were armed.
Question: You did not consider that they were combat aircraft?
Gen. White: We did not (p. 259).
Question: Were there any comments or discussion about the T-33s in particular?
Gen. Lemnitzer: I think I had information that they were armed... (p. 326).
Still, even if the efficacy of the T-33s was underestimated, it was clear, as shown above, that the air war had to be won for the invasion to succeed. Bissell himself testified to the committee that "we would have had to assume that we would have knocked out Castro's air force" (p. 112). Canceling the strikes meant there would be no air war at all, since Castro's planes would have the skies entirely to themselves.
4) Why didn't Cabell and Bissell call the President? Rusk invited them to. It must have been obvious to them that Rusk did not understand the importance of the air strikes, although they certainly did. Why would they have seen "no point" in talking with the President, when they knew that the brigade would be slaughtered if Castro got his planes off the ground?
Rusk's account of what happened the night of April 16 is perplexing, so let us look at its piece by piece, as it appears in the transcript (p. 221-2):
Question: Was it understood that control of the air was considered essential to the success of the landing?
Rusk: Yes, it was understood that it was essential to the success of the landing, but there was an inadequate appreciation of the enemy's capability in the air.
This is nonsense. Canceling the strikes meant Castro's planes would be the only ones in the air. There would be no air control whatsoever, regardless of the enemy’s capability.
Furthermore, neither the President nor I was clear that there was a D-2 airstrike. We did have it in our minds that there would be a D-Day air strike. Following the D-2 air strike there was considerable confusion.
If this is true, the D-2 strikes were carried out without the knowledge of the President.
It wasn't realized that there was to be more than one air strike in the Havana area. The President was called on this matter and he didn't think there should be second strikes in the area unless there were overriding considerations.
When was the President called? What did he mean by "in the Havana area"? The D-Day strikes were planned for San Antonio de los Baños, which is near Havana, and for Santiago de Cuba, which is at the opposite end of the island. In any case, "strikes in the area [of Havana]" cannot refer to all the strikes planned for D-Day.
And what are "overriding considerations"? Wouldn't the difference between success and failure of the operation be one? Rusk's wording (" he didn't think there should be unless") does not sound like he is talking about a presidential order. I suspect he is referring to a talk with the President on Saturday or Sunday morning, before Kennedy made the decision at noon to go ahead.
We talked about the relative importance of the air strikes with Mr. Bissell and General Cabell at the time. However, they indicated that the air strikes would be important, not critical. I offered to let them call the President, but they indicated they didn't think the matter was that important. They said that they preferred not to call the President.
This is very clear, referring to Rusk's talk with Cabell and Bissell late Sunday evening. "Important, not critical"? If Cabell and Bissell said this, they must have been purposely misleading him, because they knew perfectly well the strikes were critical.
Question: Did you attempt to advise the President as to the importance of the air strikes?
This question, immediately following Rusk's answer above, clearly means "Did you try to call the President after talking to Cabell and Bissell?" Of course, since they had told him the air strikes were not critical, there was no reason to call the President.
Rusk: I had talked to him and he had stated that if there weren't overriding considerations the second strikes shouldn't be made. Since Mr. Bissell and General Cabell didn't want to talk to the President on the matter, I felt there were no overriding considerations to advise him of. I didn't think they believed the dawn airstrikes were too important. I believe that Castro turned out to have more operational air strength than we figured.
This again is clear. The past perfect tense ("had talked," "had stated”) following the question in the simple past ("did you attempt") emphasizes that Rusk is referring to a previous conversation, probably the same one referred to earlier, which probably took place on Saturday or Sunday morning. Cabell and Bissell would have known this too, and it is simply inconceivable that they would have chosen to let the matter rest there, when they had received the President’s formal go-ahead for the invasion as planned--with air strikes--at noon. How could they have considered such an inexplicable and disastrous about-face as "not too important"?
Cabell's behavior here must be compared to his behavior the next morning (Monday, April 17), when he went to Rusk's home at 4:30 in the morning to ask for U.S. air cover for the supply ships and from there "by telephone made the request to the President" (Memo. 1, para. 45). This time the request was for official U.S. planes, which of course were not "deniable," and Kennedy refused. The point is, why was Cabell willing to call the President at 0430 in the morning to make a much more daring request than what the original plan called for, when he was unwilling to call him at 10:30 or 11:00 the night before to ask why the crucial element of the approved plan had (supposedly) suddenly been reversed?
There is another version of Cabell and Bissell's meeting with Rusk in the testimony, this time by an unidentified source, but I suspect it was Tracy Barnes, a CIA officer who was present at the testimony on that day (April 25):
Question: What led to the cancellation of the air strikes?
Answer: At 1300 Sunday it was understood that the plan, including the airstrikes for dawn of D-Day, had been approved. At about 7:00 p.m. CIA representatives were called to Mr. Rusk's office. He was concerned over the apparent defection of two rather than one B-26 and an additional cargo plane because he felt these additional defections had caused him to mislead Mr. Stevenson. At 10:30 p.m. the CIA tactical commander was advised that the airstrikes had been called off. He most strongly urged that this decision be reconsidered and reversed. In debating the air strikes question and in discussing the action to be taken to strengthen Mr. Stevenson's position, the President was contacted. In discussing the air strike question the President said he wasn't aware that there were going to be any air strikes on the morning of D-Day. At 2315 Mr. Rusk announced that there would be no dawn air strikes. At this time the invasion ships were within 5,000 yards of their landing beaches and it was physically impossible to call off the strikes (p. 130).
This contradicts Rusk's testimony on two crucial points--by implying that Rusk called the President in Cabell and Bissell's presence, and by stating that the President did not know about the planned D-Day strikes. By placing Rusk’s “announcement" of the cancellation at 2315, the impression is given that Rusk was relaying an order the President had just given to him on the telephone, although the actual order had come from McGeorge Bundy at 9:30 p.m. This is the version that appears in Peter Wyden's much-quoted book Bay of Pigs: The Untold Story (Jonathan Cape, 1979), and repeated, for example, in John Ranelagh's The Agency: The Rise and Decline of the CIA (Touchstone, 1986). But Rusk's account is more credible, if only because it comes from the Secretary of State rather than from an unidentified "CIA representative." Furthermore, the idea of Cabell and Bissell refusing to speak with the President when Rusk has him on the line is even harder to believe than their refusing to telephone him themselves. Taylor’s report also indicates that there was no phone call to the President while Cabell and Bissell were with Rusk, who "offered them the privilege of telephoning the President in order to present their views to him" (Memo. 1, para. 44), which they declined. Whoever this unidentified CIA man is, he must have been lying. Why?
There are other inconsistencies. Despite the cancellation of the dawn airstrikes, the brigade's B-26s were allowed to cover the landing beach throughout D-Day:
In all, a total of 13 combat sorties were flown on D-Day, in the course of which4 B-26s were lost to enemy T-33 action (Taylor Memo. 1, para. 56).
Who authorized this air action? If Kennedy canceled the air strikes at dawn, why would he allow these? Taylor's report does not indicate that the President was ever consulted. Then, on D-Day night, after it was much too late to be effective, the CIA decided to do on its own what it had supposedly been prevented from during at dawn:
Impressed by the ease with which the T-33 aircraft could destroy the obsoleteB-26-type aircraft, the CIA leaders decided to attempt, by a bombing attack, to destroy the remaining Castro aircraft at night on the ground. Six aircraft were scheduled to strike San Antonio de los Baños, believed to be the main base of operations, in two waves of three each during the night of 17-18 April. The mission was flown but was unsuccessful because of heavy haze and low clouds over the target (Taylor Memo. 1, para. 57).
This is a very fishy story. First of all, why didn't the CIA feel they had to ask presidential permission for this action? It was not part of the plan the President had officially approved the day before, which had called for exactly this action, but 24 hours earlier, when it still had an excellent chance of succeeding. If the CIA was bold enough to act on its own in this way on Monday night (April 17-18), when it was too late, why was it not bold enough to do the same thing on Sunday night (April 16-17), when it was still possible to succeed? On Sunday Cabell and Bissell had not even been bold enough to ask the President directly why he had (supposedly) countermanded his order of 9 hours previous. On Monday they were bold enough to do exactly what he had (supposedly) ordered them not to do the night before without even trying to ask him for permission. Secondly, although I am not a pilot, I cannot believe that these planes flew all the way from Nicaragua to San Antonio de los Baños only to turn around and go back because of a few clouds. An airport is a pretty big place, and you would think a few bombs would have been dropped in the hope of hitting something despite the poor visibility. Why didn't they try again? Why wasn't there an alternative target? Why was there no anti aircraft fire? What would have happened if the strikes had not been canceled at dawn on D-Day and there had been clouds and haze? The success of the invasion hinged on destroying Castro's air force on the ground. Is it credible that the invasion planners would have left this up to the weather?
On April 18, six more combat sorties were flown against Castro's advancing army:
The attack was reported to have been very successful with an estimated 1800casualties inflicted on the enemy and the destruction of 7 tanks. Napalm was used in these attacks, as well as bombs and rockets (Taylor Memo. 1, para. 66).
I wonder how "plausibly deniable" the use of napalm would have been? Where would the Cuban "defectors" have gotten hold of it? Furthermore, the CIA used "some American civilian contract pilots" in these sorties, because "some of the Cuban pilots either were too tired to fly or refused to do so" (Taylor Memo. 1, para.66). How plausibly deniable would this have been if they had been shot down and captured? And again, the President was not consulted--the same President who was supposedly so concerned about deniability that he supposedly canceled the most crucial action of the invasion.
As a result of Castro's air defense, two brigade supply ships were sunk, and the rest put out to sea. After the second day of fighting, the troops on the beach were running out of ammunition, and the last chance for them to save themselves was to be resupplied Tuesday night (April 18-19), under cover of darkness. The ships were too far away to make it before daylight, though, so the convoy commander asked the CIA for a U.S. destroyer escort and Navy jet cover, without which continuing would have been suicidal. The CIA refused this request and stopped the convoy. That was the end for the troops on the beach and Operation Zapata. It is interesting to compare Taylor's two somewhat different versions of why the CIA made this fateful decision. In Memo. 2 ("Immediate Causes of Failure of the Operation Zapata"), he writes:
As a result of these messages, CIA Headquarters, feeling that it would be futile to order these ammunition craft to attempt a daylight unloading, called off the mission and the attempt to get ammunition to the beach by sea ended. The President was not requested for specific authority to extend the air cover to protect the ammunition convoy (7).
This gives the impression that the CIA thought a daylight unloading would be futile even with the U.S. air cover, so they didn't bother asking the President. In Memo. 1, though, the detailed general narrative, things are presented a little differently:
Considering the climate in which this operation had been planned in Washington, the CIA leaders apparently felt that it was hopeless to ask for either destroyer escort or jet cover for the ammunition convoy. Without this overt U.S. support, it was felt that the loss of the ships would be inevitable if they tried to run it in daylight--if, indeed, they could get the Cuban crews to make the attempt. Under these circumstances, they felt justified in calling off the sea resupply effort and made no further attempt beyond an arrangement for another airdrop to get in ammunition before the final surrender (69).
The "CIA leaders" were of course Cabell and Bissell. In this version, it is clear that their decision was not based on the presumed futility of landing in daylight, as the first version implies, but on the presumed futility of getting the President's permission for air cover!
This is an exact repetition of Cabell and Bissell's performance on Sunday night. It was "futile" to ask Kennedy why he had canceled the crucial air strikes, and “futile" to ask him for this crucial air cover. So, because "the CIA leaders apparently felt that it was hopeless" to pick up the phone and talk with the President, they abandoned the troops on the beach and ensured that the last possible chance to save the operation was lost. Once this was done, however, Bissell did ask the President to provide cover for an airdrop of supplies on Wednesday morning, which was totally inadequate to save the situation:
Although permission was not sought for jet escort for the ammunition ships, Mr. Bissell of CIA sought and received Presidential authority to have the Navy to fly CAP over the beachhead from 0630 to 0730 on the morning of D+2 (Memo 1, para. 70).
This completes the pattern we have already noted:
1) The crucial D-Day dawn strikes are canceled, supposedly by the President, without the CIA attempting to consult the President directly.
2) The same strikes are made on D-Day evening, when it is too late, without consulting the President.
3) The crucial D+2 ammunition resupply convoy is stopped, without consulting the President.
4) The resupply is attempted by air on D+2, when it is too late, this time consulting the President.
We must remember that this was a major U.S. military operation, albeit a covert one, and that the President had responsibility not only as commander-in-chief of the armed forces but more directly as the superior--in fact the only superior--of the CIA. The regular military has the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Secretary of Defense to contend with, but the only person the CIA is accountable to in a covert operation is the President--not to Secretaries of Defense or State. Cabell and Bissell were well aware of this when they were told by Bundy to discuss the matter further with Rusk. Yet we are asked to believe that they were too timid to talk with Kennedy on the two most critical points of this operation (1 and 3 above), while they were bold enough to act on their own (2) or talk with him (4) immediately after those critical points had passed.