Kris Millegan
Mon, 24 Jan 2000 14:36:30 -0800
-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"> </A> -Cui Bono?- from: http://www.odci.gov/csi/books/briefing/cia-6.htm Click Here: <A HREF="http://www.odci.gov/csi/books/briefing/cia-6.htm">Chapter 3 -- Into Politics With Kennedy and Joh…</A> ----- The Mystery Briefing of Late November A number of books and articles written about the Bay of Pigs contain the assertion that Kennedy was informed in detail of the planned operation and gave his approval in a briefing by Dulles in late November 1960. A review of the chronology of these publications suggests that most authors picked up this piece of information from the widely read account of events contained in Schlesinger's A Thousand Days. Schlesinger opened Chapter 10, entitled "The Bay of Pigs," with the statement that "On November 29, 1960, 12 days after he had heard about the Cuban project, the President-elect received from Allen Dulles a detailed briefing on CIA's new military conception. Kennedy listened with attention, then told Dulles to carry the work forward."[62] If this briefing occurred, it would be by far the most important in the series Kennedy received. This would place on the President-elect an earlier and more direct responsibility for the development of the operation than would otherwise be justified. In fact, however, the Dulles-Kennedy meeting of 29 November cited by Schlesinger appears not to have occurred at all. Available CIA records contain no mention of such a briefing. Dulles's personal desk calendar shows that he had a very full day, with 10 different appointments running from 9:00 a.m. to 5:45 p.m., none of which were with the President-elect. It would be most extraordinary if the Director's calendar or other CIA records failed to note a meeting of the DCI with the President-elect. Similarly, there is nothing in information available about Kennedy's activities to indicate that he met with Dulles that day. The New York Times of 30 November reported that "The Senator worked at home throughout the day [of 29 November] leaving only to visit his wife Jacqueline and son John F. Jr. in Georgetown University Hospital." The newspapers also reported that Kennedy had met at home that day with prospective Cabinet appointee Chester Bowles, and with Terry Sanford, the latter visiting to recommend Luther Hodges for a Cabinet position. Other visitors to the Kennedy home in Georgetown included his father, Joseph P. Kennedy, Edward Foley of the Inaugural Committee, and Senator Dennis Chavez of New Mexico.[63] In thinking back on the briefings Kennedy received on the controversial Cuban operation, Ted Sorensen, his speechwriter and confidant, recalls, "President Kennedy did tell me, much later, that he had been briefed on the operation by the CIA while he was President-elect. CIA told him what they had in mind and why in some detail. That was the Palm Beach briefing." Sorensen doubted that Kennedy received a more detailed briefing by Dulles on 29 November, adding "I saw him every single day and we discussed the whole range of policy matters--the foreign issues as well as 500 domestic ones." Schlesinger was amused that he may have described a critical briefing that appears not to have occurred. In a letter to the author in 1993, he recommended that the original draft manuscript of his A Thousand Days be reviewed to ascertain whether the controversial assertion was footnoted. "If nothing turns up I must take Rick's way out," he wrote, referring to the character in "Casablanca" played by Humphrey Bogart. "Bogart: 'I came to Casablanca for the waters.' Claude Raines: 'What waters? We're in the desert.' Bogart: 'I was misinformed.'"[64] An important meeting concerning the Cuba operation, in fact, was held on 29 November at the White House at 11:00 a.m. with the President--Eisenhower--in the chair. The President-elect was not included. Schlesinger and other authors, writing a few years after the fact, had obviously learned that on that date "the President" was briefed on Cuba and, being oriented to President Kennedy, assumed that it was he who was involved. Indeed, the meeting of 29 November was an important one. On that date, Eisenhower underscored that he wanted to continue active planning for the project. Eisenhower was pushing ahead vigorously; Kennedy was not yet responsible in any degree. Soon after his inauguration on 28 January 1961, Kennedy did receive a full briefing on the planned Cuban operation. At that meeting the new President authorized the Agency to continue its preparations and asked that the paramilitary aspects of the plan be provided to the Joint Chiefs for their analysis. Even in late January, however, Kennedy withheld specific approval for an invasion, with or without direct US involvement. Kennedy Visits the CIA One unique aspect of Kennedy's familiarization with the CIA was the President-elect's decision to visit CIA Headquarters during the transition period. He was initially scheduled to visit the Agency's South Building, at 2430 E Street in downtown Washington, on 16 December. In preparation for the visit, Dulles asked Huntington Sheldon, the Director of Current Intelligence, to prepare a book for the DCI containing material he and senior Agency officials should use in discussions with Kennedy. The ambitious agenda that was prepared for the visit envisaged presentations by the DCI and eight other senior officers.[65] Briefings were prepared on the Agency's mission, organization, and budget, and on the legal basis for its activities. Dulles and others would describe the Agency's relationship with the Congress; the functions of such organizations as the Watch Committee and the President's Board of Consultants; and the functions of the several agencies that comprised the Intelligence Community. The Assistant Director for National Estimates would describe the estimates process and brief one specific paper, a recently published Estimate of the World Situation. The chiefs of the Agency's key Directorates were primed to explain their roles and activities. The clandestine services portion of the briefing included a description of clandestine intelligence collection and the covert action functions. In the latter discussion, the Chief of Operations was to update "Cuban operations since the Palm Beach briefing." Owing to scheduling difficulties, Kennedy was unable to visit the Agency on 16 December. The visit was delayed until after the inauguration and finally occurred on Thursday, 26 January 1961. Dulles's desk calendar notes that the briefings were to run from 2:40 until 4:10 p.m. In reality, they had to be abbreviated considerably, much to the consternation of the participants, because an unintended opportunity came to the President's attention. For reasons having nothing to do with Kennedy's visit, the Agency, a few weeks before, had put together an attractive exhibit of materials relating to the history of intelligence that was located just inside the entrance of South Building. A number of exhibits were displayed under a sign that read, "These letters loaned courtesy of the Houghton Library of Harvard University." The newly elected Harvard man immediately noticed the reference to his alma mater. He stopped and read thoroughly the entire case of historical materials, much to the chagrin of Dulles and other waiting CIA executives. Kennedy was already frustrated at press leaks from his new Administration and, therefore, was especially taken with one of the letters in the display case. Written by General Washington to Col. Elias Dayton in July 1777, that letter included the observation that "The necessity of procuring good Intelligence is apparent and need not be further urged--All that remains for me to add is, that you keep the whole matter as secret as possible. For upon Secrecy, Success depends in Most Enterprizes of the kind, and for want of it, they are generally defeated. . . ." Kennedy asked Dulles if he could have a copy of the letter, which, of course, was sent promptly. The President wrote the CIA Director thanking him and the creator of the exhibit, Walter Pforzheimer, saying "The letter is both a fine memento of my visit with you and a continuing reminder of the role of intelligence in national policy."[66] Origins of the President's Intelligence Checklist Within days of his election, President Kennedy sent word to the White House that he would like to receive daily briefings on the same material that was being furnished to President Eisenhower.[67] The request from Kennedy came by way of one of his assistants for transition matters, Washington attorney Clark Clifford. Eisenhower approved the passage of this material to Kennedy on 17 November, the eve of Dulles's trip to Florida. There is no record that Dulles discussed this matter with Kennedy the next day, however, and some weeks were to go by before there was any organized follow-up. When Kennedy visited CIA Headquarters after his inauguration, Sheldon described the current intelligence products that were available to him. Kennedy reiterated that he wanted to read the publications and designated his military aide, Brig. Gen. Chester Clifton, who was present at the meeting, to receive the material. Clifton had taken over Goodpaster's role of providing daily briefings to the new President, although Goodpaster continued to serve in the White House for a few weeks to help with the transition. For the first few months of the Kennedy Administration, Agency couriers each morning would deliver CIA's Current Intelligence Bulletin to Clifton. Clifton or MacGeorge Bundy would then take the material to the President, reporting back his questions or comments if there were any. Unfortunately, the intelligence report was part of a large package of material Kennedy received each day and was often not read. This left the new President less well informed than he thought he was, a situation that was soon driven home to him during his unfortunate encounter with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna, when he found himself unprepared to respond to his adversary's boasting and bullying. >From the start of the Kennedy Administration, Dulles had few opportunities to present intelligence directly to the President. In large part, this was because Kennedy did not hold regularly scheduled NSC meetings as Eisenhower and Truman had done. In addition, however, there was a problem of personal chemistry and a generational gap between the new President and the CIA Director. Agency veterans at the time had the feeling that Dulles may have been patronizing to Kennedy in his early briefings, and, thus, was not warmly welcomed to the White House.[68] Along the same lines, Sorensen remembers Kennedy "was not very impressed with Dulles's briefings. He did not think they were in much depth or told him anything he could not read in the newspapers." In these awkward circumstances, Dulles's practice was to prepare written memorandums for the President on items that he deemed to be of particular significance, delivering them personally when possible. He also made personal deliveries when he wanted to bring certain important National Estimates to the President's attention. The fiasco at the Bay of Pigs in April 1961, reinforced by Kennedy's frustration at the meeting with Khrushchev in early June, changed everything. General Clifton informed current intelligence director Sheldon that the President was reluctant to continue receiving intelligence in the normal way. Clifton suggested that the Agency would have to come up with some entirely different way of presenting its information if it were to regain the President's confidence. He volunteered that there was no point in the DCI discussing the matter directly with the President as that would be counterproductive. Dulles took this implicit criticism calmly, possibly foreseeing that the President's disappointment with the Agency on this and other scores would lead, as it did in November 1961, to his own removal. Dulles gamely soldiered on in his attempts to bring the new President the fruits of the Agency's collection and analysis in the traditional manner, but it was largely the unauthorized efforts of his subordinates that opened a new and less formal channel to the White House that would satisfy Kennedy and most of his successors. In mid-1961 Huntington Sheldon and other managers of the Office of Current Intelligence--working with Clifton but without the knowledge of their superiors either at the White House or the Agency--came up with a new intelligence briefing publication designed exclusively for the President. Longtime current intelligence specialist Richard Lehman worked up a dry run of the proposed President's Intelligence Checklist and Sheldon took it to Clifton for his approval. Clifton was pleased with the trial document, which eliminated the bewildering array of source classifications and restrictions common to intelligence publications and presented facts and analysis in short, vernacular paragraphs. The first issue of the new publication was delivered to Clifton on Saturday, 17 June, and carried by him to the President at his country home near Middleburg, Virginia. The first Checklist was a small book of seven pages, measuring 8-1/2 by 8 inches, that contained 14 items of two sentences each with a half-dozen longer notes and a few maps. Agency managers spent a nervous weekend; they were immensely relieved the following Monday morning to hear Clifton's "go ahead--so far, so good." Quickly it became clear that the President was reading the Checklist regularly and issuing instructions based on its contents. Not infrequently he asked to see source materials, estimates of developing situations highlighted for his attention, texts of speeches by foreign leaders, and occasional full-length Agency publications that provided more depth, details, and explanations. Within a few months, the Secretaries of State and Defense asked to see what the President was reading. In December, six months after publication had begun, Clifton passed the word to the Agency that those two Cabinet members should be added to the subscriber list. No Agency officer sat with the President while he read the Checklist, but Clifton was careful to pass back to the Agency the President's reactions and questions. CIA officials regarded the new system as the best possible daily channel to a President. The relationship with Kennedy was not only a distinct improvement over the more formal relationship with Eisenhower, but would only rarely be matched in future administrations. Meanwhile, in November 1961, Allen Dulles had been replaced by John McCone, who served Kennedy as DCI for almost two years. In the early part of this period, McCone succeeded in rebuilding the Agency's relationship with Kennedy. McCone saw Kennedy frequently, and the President--more than any other before or since--would telephone even lower level Agency officers for information or assistance. Interestingly, McCone's prescience in alerting the President to the possibility that the Soviets would place missiles in Cuba backfired for him personally. Although he was right when most others were wrong, the President did not like McCone's public references to this fact, and their relationship cooled noticeably. Editors of the Checklist were especially heartened in September 1963 when Clifton passed back the President's personal expression of delight with "the book." A month later, on a morning when Clifton, McGeorge Bundy, and the Agency's briefing officer were huddled in the basement of the West Wing going over the Checklist, President Kennedy called down asking where they were and when they were going to bring it to him. Clifton and his Agency contacts were also heartened by Secretary Rusk's comment that the Checklist was "a damned useful document." President Kennedy's Checklist was published daily for two and a half years, capturing the regular attention of the President and serving his needs. Created out of an almost desperate desire to please a President who had found the Agency wanting, it proved to be the forerunner of the President's Daily Brief, the publication that was to serve all presidents from 1964 to the present. The Transition to President Johnson The transition to President Johnson was as abrupt for the US Intelligence Community as it was for the rest of the country. In some respects, it was also as uncertain. Johnson had received a number of intelligence briefings as Chairman of the Senate Aeronautical and Space Sciences Committee and later as Senate Majority Leader. He had met on one occasion with Allen Dulles in July 1960 while a vice-presidential candidate, but neither Dulles nor his successor, John McCone, had paid much attention to keeping Johnson informed during the intervening years. Johnson, in turn, had paid relatively little attention to the products of the Intelligence Community while he was Vice President. Each day his office received the Agency's Current Intelligence Bulletin, a widely distributed product that contained less sensitive and less highly classified information than was included in the Checklist. Although the Checklist at the end of the Kennedy presidency was being sent also to the Secretaries of Defense and State and to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Johnson was unaware of its existence. For reasons undoubtedly growing out of the earlier political rivalry between Kennedy and Johnson, Kennedy's intelligence assistant, Bromley Smith, early in the administration had ordered that "under no circumstances should the Checklist be given to Johnson."[69] On Saturday morning, 23 November 1963, the day following Kennedy's assassination, McCone instructed his Executive Assistant, Walter Elder, to telephone the new President's secretary and inform her that the DCI would, as usual, be at the White House at 9:00 a.m. to give the President the regular morning intelligence briefing.[70] In reality, there was nothing usual or regular about the DCI's involvement in a morning briefing, but McCone obviously believed he needed to take an extraordinary initiative to establish a relationship with the new President. McCone was waiting in Bundy's office in the basement of the West Wing when the President entered at approximately 9:15. Johnson had been an infrequent visitor to those quarters, which also included the White House Situation Room, but he was forced to come there for the meeting because Kennedy's office had not yet been cleared out. R. J. Smith, CIA's Director of Current Intelligence, was present and talked briefly with Johnson in Bundy's outer office, writing later that "he looked massive, rumpled and worried."[71] Despite the irregular and strained nature of the circumstances, McCone accomplished his mission during that first meeting with President Johnson. The President expressed his confidence in McCone, who, in turn, reassured the new President that he and the Agency stood ready to support him in every way. McCone introduced the President to the Checklist and reviewed with him the unspectacular substantive items in the publication that day. Johnson had few questions during their 15-minute session, but he did agree that McCone should brief him personally each morning at least for the next several days. The President asked that the Director bring any urgent matters to his attention at any time, day or night. The Checklist shown to Johnson on that first occasion was a bulky publication containing five unusually long items and six additional notes. R. J. Smith explained to Bromley Smith that the Agency had tried to provide, as unobtrusively as possible, a bit of extra background for Johnson. Bromley Smith approved the strategy but added that he hoped the Agency would not be too obvious in its tutorials. In his memoirs, Johnson wrote of his relief to discover "on that sad November morning" that the international front was relatively peaceful and that there was nothing in the material McCone brought to him that required an immediate decision.[72] McCone met with Johnson almost every day for the next two or three weeks, briefing him on virtually all the world's trouble spots and providing information from CIA files and collection efforts on President Kennedy's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. The President told the Director to make sure that CIA gave the FBI all information and support necessary to its investigation of Oswald's background. McCone also used these opportunities to inform the President of a variety of CIA covert action and technical collection programs, including the successful effort to build what became known as the SR-71 reconnaissance aircraft to augment the U-2. McCone brought the President up to date on the status of the program (by that time a number of aircraft had been built) and to brief him on McCone's discussions with President Kennedy about the advisability of making the program public. Secretaries Rusk and McNamara had urged Kennedy to announce the aircraft's existence and Kennedy was inclined to do so. But a discussion of the political and security issues involved prompted Johnson to postpone any public announcement of the program. He ordered McCone to get as many aircraft produced and deployed to the operating site as possible and eventually revealed the existence of the aircraft at a press conference in February 1964. Vietnam The most significant issue Johnson and McCone discussed during this period undoubtedly was Vietnam. McCone was straightforward in providing the Agency's analysis of the course of the war there. Initially, this won him favor with the new President, who had not favored certain of the steps taken in Vietnam by his predecessor, but it was to lead ultimately to a falling out between McCone and Johnson. On 24 November, a mere two days after Kennedy's assassination, Johnson met at 3:00 p.m. in the Executive Office Building with Rusk, McNamara, George Ball, Bundy, McCone, and Ambassador to South Vietnam Henry Cabot Lodge. According to McCone, Lodge informed the group that the United States had not been involved in the recent coup against President Ngo Dinh Diem.[73] In fact, Lodge had instructed a CIA liaison officer to tell the South Vietnamese generals that the US Government had lost confidence in President Diem, and he was kept aware of events before and during the coup on 1 November. During the course of the military takeover, Diem was captured and then killed. Lodge maintained that the population of South Vietnam was very happy as a result of the coup, showing the group assembled at the Executive Office Building some pictures of crowds in Saigon. Lodge argued that the change in government in South Vietnam had been an improvement and that he was hopeful about the course of the war, expecting "marked progress" by February or March 1964. He also stated, without elaboration, that there were indications that North Vietnam might be interested in reaching mutually satisfactory arrangements with the United States. McCone wrote in his memorandum for the record that Lodge's statements were "optimistic, hopeful and left the President with the impression that we were on the road to victory." McCone presented the group with a much more pessimistic CIA assessment. He cited the continuing increase in Viet Cong activity over the previous month, predicting more and sustained pressures from the guerrillas. The Director pointed out that the South Vietnamese military was having considerable trouble organizing the government and was receiving little help from civilian leaders, who seemed to be staying on the sidelines. McCone said the Intelligence Community could not give an optimistic appraisal of the future. Johnson stated that he approached the situation in Vietnam with misgivings and was anxious about calls in the Congress for a US withdrawal. While recognizing that he would have to live with the results of the coup, he was particularly doubtful that the United States had taken the right course in upsetting the Diem regime. He was critical, even harsh, about the divisions within the ranks of US advisers about the conduct of the war. He made clear his desire to replace several key figures in the US country team in Saigon and dictated that he "wanted no more divisions of opinion, no more bickering, and any person that did not conform to policy should be removed." During McCone's daily discussions of the Checklist, the President regularly raised the question of Vietnam. Despite his strictures against differences of opinion, he appeared to appreciate the fact that McCone's assessments did not correspond to what he was hearing from others. The President repeatedly asked for the Director's appraisal of the situation, but the continuing exchange between the two ultimately proved troublesome for the Director. In large part this was because Johnson sought McCone's advice on the sensitive issue of who should "run the show" in South Vietnam and discussed his thoughts on possible personnel changes among his advisers and ambassadors. Johnson remarked to McCone that, although he appreciated the work the DCI was doing in intelligence, he did not want him to confine himself to that role. The President invited the Director to come to him personally with suggestions for courses of action on policy that McCone thought wise, even if his ideas were not consistent with the advice others were providing. Johnson mentioned specifically that he was not satisfied with the advice he was receiving on nuclear testing, Cuba, and particularly South Vietnam. The President questioned McCone closely about the prospects in South Vietnam, underscoring his desire for an "objective appraisal." The President specifically asked for any recommendations the DCI might have for modifying his Vietnam policy. Johnson's confiding in McCone during the first two weeks of his presidency clearly flattered the CIA Director but also put him in an awkward position with other key players in the government, as well as with his obligation as DCI to provide objective intelligence assessments. Within months, events were to reveal that McCone probably took the President more literally than he should have. The Director's candor in providing advice to the President eventually strained their relationship. The President was not so completely preoccupied with Vietnam that he did not remember to focus on another enduring problem--the Castro regime in Cuba. Within a week of becoming President, he asked McCone how effective US policy was regarding Cuba and what the CIA projected to be the future of that country. Johnson was especially interested in the effectiveness of the economic embargo of Cuba and wanted to know what the Agency planned to do to dispose of Castro. The President said he did not want any repetition of "the fiasco of 1961," the CIA-planned rebel invasion, but he felt the United States could not abide the existing Cuban situation and wanted the CIA to propose a more aggressive strategy. Johnson informed McCone that he looked to the CIA for firm recommendations. Initially, it was unclear whether Johnson would return to a system of regular NSC meetings or continue the more casual Kennedy approach. There was, therefore, much interest in the NSC meeting that the President called for 5 December 1963. At that meeting, McCone was to brief the group on the Soviet military and economic situation. He prepared thoroughly for this first NSC meeting with the new President, bringing one assistant, Clinton Conger, and a number of large briefing charts to the meeting. To McCone's surprise, Johnson had invited to the meeting the chairmen and ranking minority members of the leading Congressional committees. The Director accommodated this novel approach by quickly briefing the Congressional leaders on the fact of, and restrictions related to, communications intercepts, which were to be mentioned during the briefing. Just as the meeting began, however, there was another surprise when the President gave a nod and in came his White House photographer. McCone was aghast as the photographer began shooting pictures left and right. He turned around with a start to confirm that Conger had managed to turn over a map of Soviet ICBM sites before the first pictures were taken of that end of the room. In the subsequent months, it was to become clear that Johnson was no more enamored of weekly NSC meetings than Kennedy had been. When a rare meeting was held, however, it normally began with an intelligence briefing by McCone. With few formal NSC meetings, much of the Agency's relationship with the new President came to rest on the briefings McCone was providing Johnson privately. Unfortunately, these soon became a casualty of the differences emerging between the two men regarding Vietnam. The momentum of McCone's contacts with Johnson was interrupted by a trip the Director took in December 1963 to review the Vietnamese situation. It was his second trip to Saigon since becoming DCI, and McCone was discouraged by what he found. His pessimism made him skeptical of proposals Defense Secretary McNamara made for an extended program of clandestine raids against North Vietnam in early 1964. During a subsequent trip to Vietnam in March 1964, McCone's reservations deepened, and he concluded that the war effort, even with McNamara's enhancements, was not succeeding. McCone recommended to the President a six-point program to reverse the deteriorating situation that would involve an escalation of US military actions significantly beyond anything considered by McNamara and Johnson. Johnson refused to accept the DCI's recommendations. As the President came to side with McNamara's approach to the conduct of the war, he became increasingly impatient with McCone and with the continuing differences between the DCI and the Secretary of Defense. By the end of March 1964, Johnson clearly had lost confidence in McCone and interest in his regular intelligence updates. In the succeeding months McCone attempted periodically to restart his briefings of the President, at least on an occasional basis, but Johnson turned him aside. In June 1964 the Director informed the President for the first time that he would like to resign as soon as Johnson had decided on a successor.[74] Despite his growing disenchantment with McCone, Johnson insisted that he remain in his post until after the presidential election in November 1964. Evolution to the President's Daily Brief Providing the Checklist to President Kennedy had worked so well that CIA naturally hoped the arrangement would continue with Johnson, but this was not to be. In his first weeks as President, Johnson read the Checklist and seemed interested in discussing its contents during his meetings with McCone. After those meetings stopped, however, Johnson tended not to read the daily publication. Observing that Johnson was no longer reading the Checklist, General Clifton (who had stayed on from the Kennedy Administration as military aide to the President) proposed the idea of a twice-weekly intelligence report. CIA managers thought this strategy was worth a try. In truth, they thought that anything that would catch the President's eye was worth a try; several formats were offered during this period. They had been dismayed by Bromley Smith's assessment that Johnson was probably disinclined to read the Kennedy-tailored Checklist that had been denied him as Vice President. On 9 January the first issue of the semiweekly President's Intelligence Review was taken to Clifton at the White House. The next morning Clifton called Lehman at CIA to report that he had shown the new publication to the President at breakfast and it had "worked like a charm." At the end of January, Clifton again made a point of seeking Johnson's reaction to the Intel ligence Review. The President observed at that point that he found it a valuable supplement to the intelligence briefings he received and wanted the publication continued without change. Although the President read primarily the semiweekly review, his staff requested that the Checklist continue to be published daily to enable them to answer the President's frequent spur-of-the-moment questions. With the President not reading the Checklist most days, McCone decided he would expand its readership; he obtained permission to send it to four additional officials in the State Department, two more in Defense and in the Joint Chiefs, and to the office of the Secretary of the Treasury and the Attorney General. The practice of producing two Presidential intelligence publications worked well through the election year of 1964. The President typically read the Revie w on the return leg of campaign trips, and his staff felt well supported with the daily Checklist. As the election neared, however, Secretary of State Rusk expressed to McCone his concern about the security of the Checklist as a result of its expanded dissemination. Rusk was worried about possible leaks regarding sensitive policy issues during the campaign. The DCI was more concerned about the basic question of whether it made any sense to publish a "Presidential" Checklist when the President himself almost never read it, but agreed something should be done. Meanwhile, during the 1964 electoral campaign, Johnson's opponent, Senator Barry Goldwater, set a precedent by declining to receive intelligence briefings. In July, after consulting with the President, McCone had telephoned Goldwater to offer the customary briefings. According to his assistant, Walter Elder, Goldwater replied only that he would consider it. Within hours, an assistant called to decline, explaining that the Senator appreciated the offer but felt he had all the information he needed to conduct his campaign. McCone, reflecting a frustration he and Johnson shared, mused "he probably does; the Air Force tells him everything he wants to know." Responding to the concerns of the Secretary of State and the DCI about the circulation of the Checklist, R. J. Smith proposed that the most graceful way for the Agency to drop a number of the readers of the Checklist would be to discontinue the publication and produce a new one. Smith observed that the Agency would maximize the likelihood that Johnson would accept a new publication and read it regularly if it were produced to conform as much as possible to his work habits. Because Johnson did much of his reading at night, in bed, Smith recommended that the publication be published and delivered in the late afternoon as the Review had been, rather than in the morning like the Checklist. Smith's proposal was accepted, and after the election both the Checklist and the Review were dropped. The new President's Daily Brief, designed specifically for President Johnson, was delivered to the White House on 1 December 1964. Its fresh appearance obviously appealed to the President. His assistant, Jack Valenti, sent the first issue back to Bundy with word that the President read it, liked it, and wanted it continued. Quite apart from the packaging of the current intelligence, President Johnson--like other presidents--was becoming a closer reader of the daily products as he became increasingly enmeshed in foreign policy matters. By mid-February 1965, for example, he was reading not only the PDB but also CIA's daily Vietnam situation report, which Bromley Smith insisted be delivered at 8:00 a.m. each day so that it could be sent to the President early. In early 1965, Johnson agreed that the time had come for McCone to return to the private sector. That understanding undoubtedly was furthered by a letter the Director delivered to Johnson on 2 April in which the Director argued against an expanded land war in Vietnam and concluded that US bombing was ineffective.[75] By coincidence, the day that McCone passed the directorship of CIA to his successor, Admiral William Raborn--28 April--was also the day US Marines landed in the Dominican Republic to deal with the crisis there. It was during the Dominican crisis that word was received that the PDB had taken firm root in the White House. Presidential spokesman Bill Moyers said on 21 May, approximately six months after the PDB had been launched, that the President read it "avidly." The PDB process that was in place in early 1965 continued more or less unchanged throughout the Johnson administration. CIA did not receive from Johnson the steady presidential feedback that it had received from Kennedy. The Agency knew, however, that the President was reading the PDB regularly, and Johnson's aides, usually Bromley Smith, were consistently helpful in passing back the President's reactions, criticisms, and requests. The only significant change made in the PDB process came when the President again reversed himself and indicated he wanted to receive the PDB early in the morning rather than in the evening. He had decided that he wanted to see the PDB at 6:30 a.m., before he began reading the morning newspapers. Those newspapers later provided conclusive evidence that the publication was reaching the President. Agency personnel were surprised one morning to see a photograph in the papers showing the President and Mrs. Johnson sitting in the White House in dressing gowns. Mrs. Johnson was holding their first grandson while the President was reading a copy of the President's Daily Brief. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [31] The New York Times, 8 October 1960, p. 10. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [32] The New York Times, 14 October 1960, p. 21. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [33] The New York Times, 22 October 1960, pp. 8, 9. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [34] Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., A Thousand Days (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965), p. 225. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [35] Richard Goodwin, Remembering America (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1988), p. 125. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [36] The New York Times, 23 October 1960, p. E10. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [37] Richard Nixon, The Memoirs of Richard Nixon (New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1978), p. 220. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [38] The New York Times, 22 October 1960, p. 9. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [39] Theodore Sorensen, telephone interview with the author, 19 May 1993. Unless otherwise indicated, all references to Sorensen's comments come from this interview. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [40] Goodwin, Remembering America, p. 125. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [41] Knight McMahan, interview with the author in Hanover, New Hampshire, 18 April 1993. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [42] Richard Nixon, Six Crises (New York: Doubleday and Co., 1962), p. 354. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [43] Dwight Eisenhower, in comments recorded by Allen Dulles, Memorandum for the President, 9 July 1960. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [44] Dwight Eisenhower telegrams to John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, Public Papers of the Presidents, 1960, p. 582. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [45] Allen Dulles, Memorandum for the President, 3 August 1960. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [46] Allen Dulles, Memorandum for the Record, 21 September 1960. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [47] CIA, untitled list of significant developments in response to Kennedy's request; no date. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [48] CIA, "Draft Cuban Operational Briefing: President-Elect," 15 November 1960. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [49] Allen Dulles, Memorandum for Gen. Andrew J. Goodpaster, 25 September 1960. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [50] Andrew Goodpaster, interview by the author in Washington, DC, 26 September 1993. Unless otherwise indicated, all references to Goodpaster's observations come from this interview. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [51] Special National Intelligence Estimate No. 11-10-57, "The Soviet ICBM Program - Conclusions," 10 December 1957, pp. 1,2. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [52] National Intelligence Estimate No. 11-8-59, "Soviet Capabilities for Strategic Attack through Mid-1964," 9 February 1960, p. 2. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [53] National Intelligence Estimate No. 11-4-59, "Main Trends in Soviet Capabilities and Policies, 1959-1964," 9 February 1960, p.4. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [54] Howard Stoertz, interview by the author in McLean, Virginia, 27 September 1993. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [55] Gerald Ford, interview by the author in Beaver Creek, Colorado, 8 September 1993. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [56] Richard Bissell, interview by the author in Farmington, Connecticut, 17 April 1993. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [57] Allen Dulles, Memorandum for Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor, 1 June 1961. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [58] Allen Dulles, My Answer on the Bay of Pigs, unpublished draft, October 1965. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [59] Lyman Kirkpatrick, Diary, 10 November 1960. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [60] Richard Bissell, untitled and undated notes for briefing President-elect Kennedy. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [61] Andrew Goodpaster, Memorandum for the Record, 17 November 1960. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [62] Schlesinger, A Thousand Days, p. 233. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [63] The New York Times, 30 November 1960, pp. 1,30. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [64] Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., letter to the author, 23 June 1993. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [65] CIA, "Agenda for President-elect," 16 December 1960. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [66] John Kennedy letter to Allen Dulles, 10 February 1961. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [67] Goodpaster, Memorandum for Record, 17 November 1960. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [68] Richard Lehman, interview by the author in McLean, Virginia, 10 March 1993. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [69] Lehman interview, 10 March 1993. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [70] Walter Elder, interview by the author in McLean, Virginia, 21 April 1993. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [71] R. J. Smith, The Unknown CIA (Washington: Pergamon-Brassy's, 1989), p. 163. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [72] Lyndon Johnson, The Vantage Point (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971), p. 22. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [73] John McCone, Memorandum for the Record, "South Vietnam Situation," 25 November 1961. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [74] Elder interview, 21 April 1993. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [75] Elder interview, 21 April 1993. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Central Intelligence Agency CIA Briefings of Presidential Candidates 22 May 1996 --[cont]-- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, All My Relations. Omnia Bona Bonis, Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. 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