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    forces in Vietnam in 1964.
    8
    LEGACY OF SECRECY
    Of more immediate concern to Bobby Kennedy was Cuba, a problem
    in which he had taken a leading role that went far beyond just giving
    advice to JFK. In fact, Bobby’s involvement surpassed anything that
    could remotely be considered the role of an Attorney General. JFK had
    delegated to Bobby the primary responsibility for defining and imple-
    menting Cuban operations, because the CIA had so badly bungled the
    Bay of Pigs operation in 1961 that JFK wanted someone he trusted to be
    in charge. JFK felt uncomfortable leaving Cuban operations entirely to
    the US military, since some of his Joint Chiefs had indicated an eagerness
    to attack Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Of the military
    brass, JFK fully trusted only his new Joint Chiefs Chairman, General
    Maxwell Taylor; Defense Intelligence Agency head General Joseph
    Carroll; and Secretary of the Army Cyrus Vance.
    The complex, covert operations that made up the secret war against
    Cuba couldn’t be delegated to cabinet officials like Defense Secretary
    Robert McNamara or Secretary of State Dean Rusk for several reasons.
    First, Defense and State had their own large bureaucracies, subject to
    Congressional oversight, a situation that wasn’t conducive to their mak-
    ing quick decisions about complicated, top-secret operations where the
    hand of the US had to remain hidden. They also had their hands full with
    Vietnam, and the rest of the Cold War with Russia and China, whose
    fronts ranged from Eastern Europe to Asia to the Middle East. Finally,
    Rusk and McNamara were the administration’s highest-profile officials
    to the press and public, which was hardly compatible with overseeing
    the Kennedys’ highly secret operations against Cuba.
    While the Joint Chiefs, Defense, State, and the CIA all had input
    into Cuba policy and operations, declassified files and former admin-
    istration officials make it clear that JFK delegated control to his trusted
    brother, Bobby. Selected officials in those agencies participated in three
    subcommittees of the National Security Council (the Standing Group,
    the Special Group, and the Interdepartmental Coordinating Commit-
    tee of Cuban Affairs), whose organization and responsibility were so
    confusing that detailed charts had to be prepared just to sort things
    out. Though Bobby Kennedy appeared on none of the charts, decades
    later Alexander Haig said that when it came to Cuban operations in
    1963, “Bobby Kennedy was running it—hour by hour.” Haig stated
    emphatically that as far as Cuba was concerned, “Bobby Kennedy was
    the President. He was the President! Let me repeat, as a reasonably close
    observer, HE WAS THE PRESIDENT!”5 (Emphasis in original.) In 1963,
    Haig was the aide to Joseph Califano, the assistant to Army Secretary

Chapter One
9
    Cyrus Vance. Haig’s comments were confirmed in Califano’s autobiog-
    raphy, as well as by a confidential source we interviewed who served
    on two of the three Cuba committees, and by other Kennedy associates.6
    CIA official Richard Helms told Newsweek editor Evan Thomas that “you
    haven’t lived until you’ve had Bobby Kennedy rampant on your back
    [about Cuba].”7
    For his secret Cuba operations, Bobby worked directly with officials
    like Helms and Vance, often bypassing their superiors, such as CIA
    Director John McCone and Defense Secretary McNamara. Bobby also
    dealt directly with several Cuban exile leaders he trusted, much to the
    resentment and frustration of CIA officials who had previously been in
    charge of controlling US-backed exile leaders.
    Bobby sought out people he had confidence in, or felt he could con-
    trol, because the Cold War was at its height and the stakes were high:
    It was just a year after the tense nuclear standoff of the Cuban Missile
    Crisis of October 1962, and thousands of Russian personnel were still
    in Cuba. A recently declassified “Top Secret . . . briefing for Mr.