It’s an interesting article, but there is nothing new here. And contrary to the video attached to the print article, no new document or documents have been recently released about plots to assassinate Castro. The CNN article mentions CIA Deputy Director of Plans Richard Bissell’s false story that–right after the inauguration–he was pressured by the White House to establish an assassination capability in the CIA to dispose of Castro. As I demonstrated in Chapter Seven of my latest (2019) volume, Into the Storm, that was a lie and Bissell knew it was a lie. When Bissell appeared before the Church Committee on 17 and 22 July 1975, he retracted his claim that President Kennedy told him to create an Executive Action project. At length, the committee concluded this: “His testimony, given in light of information obtained since his earlier appearances, was that there was no White House urging for the creation of the Executive Action project.” At the end of several weeks of depositions to sort out the facts, the committee’s investigation established that an Executive Action capability had neither been requested by the president nor discussed with him. What Was the Motive for Bissell’s Deception?

This question needs to be answered and I believe it can be answered with confidence. By the time Kennedy was in the White House, Bissell was desperate for a miracle. Bissell calculated that if Harvey was convinced that the new president was secretly serious about assassinating Castro, then the gun-toting king of luncheon martinis might be motivated to help make it happen. For Bissell, much more than his position as the DDP was riding on the success or failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion. In early 1961, Under Secretary of State Chester Bowles wanted Bissell to accept the position of Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. Bissell got an appointment with Secretary of State Rusk to talk about it, and Rusk said he would be delighted if Bissell served in that position. Afterward, Bissell spoke with the president. Kennedy told Bissell it would be best if he remained in his job as the CIA Deputy Director of Plans. Kennedy had let it be known that Bissell would be replacing Dulles as DCI in July 1961. It was “no great secret,” Bissell wrote in his memoir, that JFK “viewed me as Dulles’ successor.”

Clearly, nothing less than Bissell’s future chance to become the Director of Central Intelligence was at stake. This single fact explains a lot about Bissell’s flawed judgement. In his mind at the time, Castro’s assassination before the exile landing was the only card left in the deck and the only person able to play that card appeared to be Harvey. Having accepted that the ends justified the means, Bissell lied to Harvey. Bissell fabricated his story about a presidential order at the first possible opportunity—immediately after Kennedy’s inauguration.

None of Bissell’s lies resulted from a dislike, let alone a hatred, for John Kennedy. But his selfish interests had long term consequences that he could not have foreseen. His last lie was his worst lie. Bissell could never have imagined that his whopper about a presidential order to establish an Executive Action capability would ultimately fall into the hands of a CIA staff officer who held nothing but hatred for the Kennedy brothers. Bissell could never have imagined that his last lie would be used to deprecate his former friend John Kennedy in perpetuity. Bissell could never have imagined that the CIA would carry on his Mafia plot to assassinate Castro, lie to Attorney General Robert Kennedy that it had been terminated, and then continue the operation against the AG’s orders and behind his back. And, finally, Bissell could never have imagined that Sam Halpern would lie to the Agency and to the world that RFK had waged a secret Mafia campaign to assassinate Castro.

All of these unforeseen events would come to pass. Both Bissell and Halpern lied about what I have dubbed the “White House pressures ploy.” But their motives differed. Bissell lied about it at the time (early 1961) to protect his chance to become the DCI. Halpern lied about this alleged ploy much later to buttress his forty-year-long false campaign to blame Bobby Kennedy for his brother’s assassination.