In March I960, President
Dwight
Eisenhower of
the United States approved a Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA)
plan to overthrow Fidel
Castro. The plan
involved a budget of $13 million to train "a paramilitary force
outside Cuba for guerrilla action." The strategy was organised
by Richard Bissell and Richard
Helms.
In
September 1960, Allen
W. Dulles, the director of the CIA, initiated talks with two leading
figures of the Mafia, Johnny
Roselli and
Sam
Giancana.
Later, other crime bosses such as Carlos
Marcello,
Santos
Trafficante and Meyer
Lansky
became involved in this plot against Castro.
After the Bay
of Pigs disaster President John
F. Kennedy
created a committee called Special Group Augmented (SGA) charged with
overthrowing Castro's government. The SGA, chaired by Robert
F. Kennedy (Attorney
General), included John
McCone (CIA
Director), McGeorge Bundy (National Security
Adviser), Alexis Johnson (State Department), Roswell Gilpatric (Defence
Department), General Lyman Lemnitzer (Joint Chiefs of Staff) and General
Maxwell Taylor. Although not officially
members, Dean Rusk (Secretary of State)
and Robert
S. McNamara (Secretary
of Defence) also attending meetings.
At a meeting of this committee
at the White House on 4th November, 1961, it was decided to call this
covert action program for sabotage and subversion against Cuba, Operation
Mongoose. Attorney General Robert
F. Kennedy also
decided that General Edward
Lansdale (Staff
Member of the President's Committee on Military Assistance) should
be placed in charge of the operation.
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