The Invasion of Cuba: Never the Intention of JFK Hit Sponsors

[R.K. Locke]

Don:

I am beginning to come around to your way of thinking here (and Drago's).

This stems back to Scott's ancient--and perhaps diliapidated--old Phase One Phase two paradigm.

I am beginning to think that this was fundamentally wrong. And for more than one reason.

First, in all of the material I have read in the immediate hours and days following the murder, I can detect no real effort to get an invasion of Cuba going. I mean where was the Northwoods provocation? Would that not have been the perfect thing to do here in conjunction with the JFK murder?

Second, the attempts to link Oswald with the Cuban G2 were so amateurish as to be amateur night in nature. Not one of them was ever taken seriously.

Third, where was the renewed effort afterward to revive MONGOOSE?

See, as I denote in my book Destiny Betrayed, Kennedy had essentially abandoned MONGOOSE after the Misisle Crisis. In fact, the CIA told LBJ in the summer of 1964, that it was not worth sustaining anymore and recommended it be abandoned.

This is one reason that, at the Wecht Conference, i did a one hour talk about JFK's foreign policy without ever dealing with Cuba at all! And only tangentially dealing with Vietnam. Since I have come to look at Vietnam and Cuba not in isolation, or even as paired, but as extensions of a Gestalt foreign policy view that had already been formed prior to Kennedy becoming president. And if one understands that, then everything that followed becomes of a piece with everything else.

Debra Conway wants me to repeat that talk in Dallas and I think I will.

Well, there was this:


HSCA: Were you aware of a secret cable which was sent on the night of the assassination from the Fourth Army Command in Texas to the U.S. Strike Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida?

MR. JONES: Yes, sir. I was aware of it. This communication was not forwarded by a military intelligence group.

HSCA: Please repeat that.

MR. JONES: The communication, the telegram to the Strike Command at MacDill Air Force Base, was not prepared by the 112 Military Intelligence Group.

HSCA: Who did prepare this communication?

MR. JONES: I do not know the individual who prepared it, but it was sent from the Chief of Staff, Intelligence, Fort Sam Houston, Texas, and someone on the staff prepared it. I believe the man's name is Mr. Arthur Nagel.

HSCA: Did you know whether this communication contained information indicating that Oswald had defected to Cuba in 1959?

MR. JONES: I believe I read the cable after it was prepared. We were not part of the preparation. I take no pride of authorship of it.

HSCA: Did you know whether this communication contained information stating that Oswald was a card carrying member of the Communist Party?

MR. JONES: Only after I read it.

HSCA: Would you characterize either of these items of information as being accurate or inaccurate?

MR. JONES: I do not know. The agency that supplied anyone with information that Oswald was a card carrying Communist, I certainly had no information in regard to him being a Communist, factual information.

HSCA: How about the information stating that Oswald had defected to Cuba in 1959?

MR. JONES: That information was in our file.

HSCA: You may have misunderstood me. I am referring to information that Oswald had defected to Cuba in 1959, not the Soviet Union in 1959.

MR. JONES: I was not aware of that.

HSCA: Can you possibly speculate as to why such a communication would have been sent to the U. S. Strike Force in Florida?

MR. JONES: It would only be speculation on my part. I would assume that they would fear a national emergency and they would ant to appraise this organization that was the kind of nerve center for activation and deployment of troops in case of emergency., This is the only reason that I can give as to why they would send such a cable.

HSCA: Do you know whether such a communication was sent to any other U.S. strike command base, other than MacDill Air Force Base in Florida?

MR. JONES: I am only aware of its being sent to MacDill Air Force Base.

HSCA: Would that lead you to the conclusion that from the location of the Air Base in Florida, possible activities involving Cuba were contemplated?

MR. JONES: I would not assume that, no, sir. I think that this happened to be one of the strike command headquarters that they would send it to, without any reference, or particular reason to refer to Cuba.