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How It All Began - The U-2 and the Bay of Pigs
To understand the origins of the Power Control Group, it is necessary to return to the last years of the
Eisenhower administration and examine what was going on in the Cold War.
Eisenhower had suffered several strokes and a heart attack. He was partially immobilized, and entrusted
a major share of the coordination of clandestine activities being conducted by the CIA against the "Red
Menace" to Richard Nixon, his vice president. While Ike was warning against the military-industrial-
complex’s domestic influence, and attempting to move toward detente with the Soviets through a summit
meeting, he was being sabotaged by the plans section of the CIA and by Richard Nixon.
A part of the CIA arranged for a U-2 with Gary Powers as pilot to go down over Russia, thus giving
Khrushchev a chance to expose American spying and to cancel the summit meeting. This was one of the
earliest moves of the nucleus of what later evolved into the Power Control Group. In the spring of 1960,
with Ike nearly senile and pressured by Nixon, he approved the plan for the invasion of Cuba and the
assassination of Castro. Nixon was the chief White House action officer for what later became the Bay of
Pigs invasion.
The Power Control Group was beginning to organize itself with Nixon as part of it. The cold warriors
and strong anti-Communist "patriots" in the Plans or Operations part of the CIA formed the original
nucleus.
Their plan was to make Nixon president in 1961 and to launch a successful takeover of Cuba. John
Kennedy came along to upset the plan. Not only did he make the takeover impossible but he soon
discovered the evils lurking in the hearts and minds of the CIA clandestine operators and laid his own plans
to destroy them. The assassination of John Kennedy essentially became an act of survival for some of
these individuals.
Many citizens of America have forgotten that Richard Nixon was Vice President of the United States in
1959 and 1960. As an old anti-communist from the Alger Hiss and Khrushchev debating days, Nixon was
in the forefront of pressure for the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. What is also forgotten is that Nixon was
largely responsible for the covert training of Cuban exiles by the CIA in preparation for the Bay of Pigs.
(He stated this in his book, Six Crises.
To understand the origins of the Power Control Group, it is necessary to return to the last years of the
Eisenhower administration and examine what was going on in the Cold War.
Eisenhower had suffered several strokes and a heart attack. He was partially immobilized, and entrusted
a major share of the coordination of clandestine activities being conducted by the CIA against the "Red
Menace" to Richard Nixon, his vice president. While Ike was warning against the military-industrial-
complex’s domestic influence, and attempting to move toward detente with the Soviets through a summit
meeting, he was being sabotaged by the plans section of the CIA and by Richard Nixon.
A part of the CIA arranged for a U-2 with Gary Powers as pilot to go down over Russia, thus giving
Khrushchev a chance to expose American spying and to cancel the summit meeting. This was one of the
earliest moves of the nucleus of what later evolved into the Power Control Group. In the spring of 1960,
with Ike nearly senile and pressured by Nixon, he approved the plan for the invasion of Cuba and the
assassination of Castro. Nixon was the chief White House action officer for what later became the Bay of
Pigs invasion.
The Power Control Group was beginning to organize itself with Nixon as part of it. The cold warriors
and strong anti-Communist "patriots" in the Plans or Operations part of the CIA formed the original
nucleus.
Their plan was to make Nixon president in 1961 and to launch a successful takeover of Cuba. John
Kennedy came along to upset the plan. Not only did he make the takeover impossible but he soon
discovered the evils lurking in the hearts and minds of the CIA clandestine operators and laid his own plans
to destroy them. The assassination of John Kennedy essentially became an act of survival for some of
these individuals.
Many citizens of America have forgotten that Richard Nixon was Vice President of the United States in
1959 and 1960. As an old anti-communist from the Alger Hiss and Khrushchev debating days, Nixon was
in the forefront of pressure for the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. What is also forgotten is that Nixon was
largely responsible for the covert training of Cuban exiles by the CIA in preparation for the Bay of Pigs.
(He stated this in his book, Six Crises.
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