After the Bay
of Pigs disaster President John
F. Kennedy
created a committee (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.
The CIA JM/WAVE
station in Miami
served as operational headquarters for Operation Mongoose. The head
of the station was Ted
Shackley and
over the next few months became very involved in the attempt to overthrow
Fidel
Castro.
One of Lansdale's first decisions was to appoint William
Harvey as head of Task Force W. Harvey's brief was to organize
a broad range of activities that would help to bring down Castro's
government.
Open
Debate on the Kennedy Assassination
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