apart. The two groups of aircraft never meet up. As a result, several B-26s and their pilots are shot down by the Cuban air force. Pierre Salinger, the president’s press secretary, discovers Kennedy alone in the White House residence weeping after hearing the news.
Jackie has never seen her husband so upset. She has seen JFK cry only twice before and is startled when he puts his head in his hands and sobs. Bobby asks the First Lady to stay close, because the president needs comfort. On this day, Kennedy doesn’t even worry about his usually meticulous personal appearance, greeting one senator for a meeting in the Oval Office with his hair a mess and his tie twisted at an odd angle.
Bobby Kennedy rushes to his brother’s defense when Lyndon Johnson complains that he’s been kept out of the loop. Bobby paces the floor of the Cabinet Room, glaring now and again at the Caribbean map and those magnetic ships. “We’ve got to do something, we’ve got to do something,” he says again and again. When the CIA and military leaders don’t reply, he wheels around and sharply says, “All you bright fellows have gotten the president into this, and if you don’t do something now, my brother will be regarded as a paper tiger by the Russians.”
Meanwhile, the president passes the rest of the day wallowing in grief, making no attempt to hide his depression from the White House staff. “How could I have been so stupid?” he mutters to himself, often interrupting a completely different conversation to repeat those words. “How could I have been so stupid?”
* * *
By 5:30 P.M. on the night of April 19, Cuban forces have taken complete control of the Bay of Pigs. The invasion is over.
In addition to the dead and captured on the ground, Castro’s forces have sunk almost a dozen invasion vessels, including those carrying food and ammunition, and shot down nine B-26 bombers.
The defeat is a major humiliation for the United States. Kennedy is forced to give a press conference and take full blame. “There’s an old saying that victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan. What matters,” he says, is that “I am the responsible officer of the government.”
One day JFK will look back and speculate that the Bay of Pigs blunder could have given the U.S. military reason to interfere with the civilian American government on the grounds that the president was unsuited for office.
Six months later, however, it is CIA director Allen Dulles who is fired. The CIA chief is extremely bitter. The slight is one that the old spymaster and his agency will not soon forget.
* * *
A week after the Bay of Pigs debacle, Kennedy calls his advisers, including Bobby, into the Cabinet Room. Bobby’s attendance at a foreign policy meeting is unusual, and at first the president’s brother holds his tongue.
The president leans back in his chair and softly taps a pencil against his teeth as Undersecretary of State Chester Bowles reads a lengthy statement that absolves the State Department from any blame concerning the Bay of Pigs.
JFK can see that Bobby is seething. The two brothers find Bowles whiny and self-righteous.
The president knows from a lifetime of observing his little brother in action that an explosion is coming soon. He has also authorized Bobby to speak for him. JFK waits, keeping his expression blank, listening, tapping that pencil against his teeth.
Finally Bobby Kennedy takes the floor. He brutally tears into Chester Bowles with words designed to humiliate.
“That’s the most meaningless, worthless thing I’ve ever heard. You people are so anxious to protect your own asses that you’re afraid to do anything. All you want to do is dump the whole thing on the president. We’d be better off if you just quit and left the foreign policy to someone else,” Bobby growls, his voice growing louder. The president watches, his face impassive, that pencil making just the slightest clicking noise on his
Jackie has never seen her husband so upset. She has seen JFK cry only twice before and is startled when he puts his head in his hands and sobs. Bobby asks the First Lady to stay close, because the president needs comfort. On this day, Kennedy doesn’t even worry about his usually meticulous personal appearance, greeting one senator for a meeting in the Oval Office with his hair a mess and his tie twisted at an odd angle.
Bobby Kennedy rushes to his brother’s defense when Lyndon Johnson complains that he’s been kept out of the loop. Bobby paces the floor of the Cabinet Room, glaring now and again at the Caribbean map and those magnetic ships. “We’ve got to do something, we’ve got to do something,” he says again and again. When the CIA and military leaders don’t reply, he wheels around and sharply says, “All you bright fellows have gotten the president into this, and if you don’t do something now, my brother will be regarded as a paper tiger by the Russians.”
Meanwhile, the president passes the rest of the day wallowing in grief, making no attempt to hide his depression from the White House staff. “How could I have been so stupid?” he mutters to himself, often interrupting a completely different conversation to repeat those words. “How could I have been so stupid?”
* * *
By 5:30 P.M. on the night of April 19, Cuban forces have taken complete control of the Bay of Pigs. The invasion is over.
In addition to the dead and captured on the ground, Castro’s forces have sunk almost a dozen invasion vessels, including those carrying food and ammunition, and shot down nine B-26 bombers.
The defeat is a major humiliation for the United States. Kennedy is forced to give a press conference and take full blame. “There’s an old saying that victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan. What matters,” he says, is that “I am the responsible officer of the government.”
One day JFK will look back and speculate that the Bay of Pigs blunder could have given the U.S. military reason to interfere with the civilian American government on the grounds that the president was unsuited for office.
Six months later, however, it is CIA director Allen Dulles who is fired. The CIA chief is extremely bitter. The slight is one that the old spymaster and his agency will not soon forget.
* * *
A week after the Bay of Pigs debacle, Kennedy calls his advisers, including Bobby, into the Cabinet Room. Bobby’s attendance at a foreign policy meeting is unusual, and at first the president’s brother holds his tongue.
The president leans back in his chair and softly taps a pencil against his teeth as Undersecretary of State Chester Bowles reads a lengthy statement that absolves the State Department from any blame concerning the Bay of Pigs.
JFK can see that Bobby is seething. The two brothers find Bowles whiny and self-righteous.
The president knows from a lifetime of observing his little brother in action that an explosion is coming soon. He has also authorized Bobby to speak for him. JFK waits, keeping his expression blank, listening, tapping that pencil against his teeth.
Finally Bobby Kennedy takes the floor. He brutally tears into Chester Bowles with words designed to humiliate.
“That’s the most meaningless, worthless thing I’ve ever heard. You people are so anxious to protect your own asses that you’re afraid to do anything. All you want to do is dump the whole thing on the president. We’d be better off if you just quit and left the foreign policy to someone else,” Bobby growls, his voice growing louder. The president watches, his face impassive, that pencil making just the slightest clicking noise on his
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