Official History of the Bay of Pigs Operation- Volume 2- Part 1

the Eisenhower government was increasingly
zombie. You know, you would go over there
to talk to James Douglas Smith [sic], Under-
secretary of Defense, and, "well, Mr. Smith
probably won't be in much any more, he is
in New York looking for a job. Mr. Irwin
is in charge," and so on.
I guess this is one of the maddest any-
body ever saw Eisenhower because three
times the President of the United States
had to be involved in this weighty matter
-- should Special Forces troops be made
available to the Agency for this matter?
Doubly stupid because, as I said earlier,
Colonel Yarborough and Dick Drain were
entirely in accord on this. Yarborough
wanted these guys to get some Latin American
experience on the ground, and we desperately
needed them. Three times the cock crew be-
fore the President of the United States
had his order carried out. The first time
it was discussed the President of the United
States authorized it; and the Undersecretary
of Defense went back and told the Secretary
of the Army -- that goddamned fool Brucker,
or whatever his name was ... from Michigan
"You are authorized to do this."
I went over to see Yarborough, and expec-
ted to see him jump for joy; and he hadn't
gotten the message. So I "take this problem
to Tracy Barnes and he says, "I think this
is something that we will negotiate." I
said, "Well, you do what you want with it,
but the President of the United States has
ordered it, and nothing is happening." He
said, "well, I will go see Jack Irwin."
Well, he came back with the word that the
President had not "directed" it, he had
. only "authorized" it; and the Secretary
of the Army did not feel that "authorized"
to do something ... he was "required" to
do it. O.K., we take it back to the NSC,