Kennedy's Last Days: The Assassination That Defined a Generation Read online

  Kennedy is preoccupied with Cuba. A battlefield is taking shape there. Kennedy has authorized a secret invasion of the island nation, sending 1,400 anti-Castro exiles to do a job that the U.S. military, by rule of international law, cannot do itself. The freedom fighters’ goal is nothing less than the overthrow of the Cuban government. The plan has been in the works since long before Kennedy was elected. Both the Central Intelligence Agency and the Joint Chiefs of Staff representing the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines have assured the president that the mission will succeed. But it is Kennedy who has given the go-ahead, and it is he who will take the blame if the mission fails.

  In the days leading up to the scheduled invasion, President Kennedy reviewed the CIA’s plan. He wanted the invasion to seem as if it had been generated solely by Cuban exiles, thereby masking American government involvement. This required an out-of-the-way landing area where men and supplies could go ashore quietly, then slip into the countryside unnoticed.

  The CIA suggested a location, known as Bahía de Cochinos—loosely translated as the “Bay of Pigs.” The landing would take place at night.

  On April 14, just two days after giving a press conference in which he promised there would be no intervention by U.S. forces in Cuba, Kennedy gave Operation Zapata, as the Bay of Pigs invasion was known, the official go-ahead.

  April 14 was a Friday. After launching the invasion, there was nothing for the president to do but wait. So he flew to Glen Ora to be with Jackie and the kids, where he endured a gut-wrenching weekend waiting for news from Cuba. When word finally came, almost none of it was good.

  It started on Saturday morning, when eight B-26 bombers piloted by Cuban freedom fighters attacked three Cuban air bases. The bombings barely damaged the Cuban air force. But Fidel Castro was furious. He immediately accused the United States of involvement in the attack.

  Things only got worse after that. A diversionary landing on Saturday was supposed to put about 160 anti-Castro Cuban freedom fighters ashore near Guantánamo Bay, but it was canceled when a crucial boat broke down. In a separate incident, Cuban forces arrested a small band of freedom fighters who were already on the island.

  By Saturday afternoon, the Cuban ambassador to the United Nations was addressing the General Assembly, denouncing the United States for its attack—in response to which Adlai Stevenson, the U.S. ambassador, repeated JFK’s promise that no American forces would ever wage war in Cuba.

  This photo, printed in a Cuban newspaper, shows the Cuban army attacking the U.S.-backed freedom fighters. [© Bettmann/Corbis]

  In the dead of night, just after Sunday turned to Monday, the landing force of 1,400 Cuban exiles from Brigade 2506 powered toward the Bay of Pigs aboard a small fleet of freighters and landing vessels. Their hopes were high—their dream was to regain control of their homeland.

  * * *

  John Kennedy stands in the Oval Office, helpless to stop what he has started. At his side is his brother Bobby, his closest friend and adviser.

  The news from the landing beaches is not good: The freedom fighters have failed to secure key roads and other strategic points. There is no way off the beach for the men of Brigade 2506. Cuban forces have pinned them down. The invasion is stalled.

  A distraught JFK shares his fears with Bobby. The president knows when speaking with his brother that he is safe from security leaks or attempts to undermine his authority. But even now, with Bobby at his side, John Kennedy feels the crushing loneliness of being the president of the United States. He has made this mess in Cuba. If only he can find a way to turn this disaster into a victory.

  But that is not to be.

  April 19, 1961

  In a last-ditch attempt to salvage the invasion, the president reluctantly authorizes one hour of air cover starting at 6:30 A.M., to be provided by six unmarked jets from the Navy aircraft carrier Essex. The jets are to rendezvous with the B-26 bombers piloted by Cuban freedom fighters and keep the Cuban aircraft at bay.

  Now there is more bad news: incredibly, the CIA and the Pentagon didn’t account for the time zone difference between Cuba and the freedom fighters’ air base in Nicaragua. Jets from the Essex and the B-26 bombers from Nicaragua arrive at the rendezvous one hour apart. The two groups of aircraft never meet up. As a result, several B-26s and their pilots are shot down by the Cuban air force. Pierre Salinger, the president’s press secretary, discovers Kennedy alone in the White House residence, weeping after hearing the news.

  Robert Kennedy was his brother’s closest friend and confidant. Here they stand outside the door leading to the Oval Office. [JFK Presidential Library and Museum]

  By 5:30 P.M. on the night of April 19, Cuban forces have taken complete control of the Bay of Pigs. The invasion is over.

  In addition to the dead and captured on the ground, Castro’s forces have sunk almost a dozen invasion vessels, including those carrying food and ammunition, and shot down nine B-26 bombers.

  The defeat is a major humiliation for the United States. Kennedy is forced to give a press conference and take full blame. “There’s an old saying that victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan.…” What matters, he says, is that “I am the responsible officer of the government.”

  Amazingly, Kennedy’s approval rises to 83 percent after the invasion, proving to the president that the American people stand firmly behind his actions against Castro. The rating temporarily makes him one of the most popular presidents of the 20th century.

  * * *

  Meanwhile, in the Soviet Union, the U.S. State Department has decided to return Lee Harvey Oswald’s American passport to him and allow him to return home. He delays his departure until Marina and their unborn child can travel with him.

  He also puts off telling Marina that they are going anywhere.

  At last, Oswald breaks the news. “My wife is slightly startled,” he writes in his journal in June, after finally telling Marina that they are leaving the Soviet Union, most likely forever, “but then encourages me to do what I wish to do.”

  Marina is on the verge of leaving behind everything she knows for a life of uncertainty with a man she barely knows. But she accepts this hard reality because she has already learned one important thing about Lee Harvey Oswald: He always does what he wants to do, no matter how many obstacles are thrown in his path.

  Always.

  [© Corbis]

  CHAPTER NINE

  FEBRUARY 14, 1962

  Washington, D.C. 8:00 P.M. EST on NBC and CBS TV

  THE FIRST LADY GLIDES ALONE down a hallway, walking straight toward the television cameras. Her outfit and lipstick are a striking red, but the camera will broadcast only in black and white, so this detail is lost on the 46 million Americans tuning in to watch her televised tour of the White House. This is Jackie’s moment in the national spotlight, a chance to show off her ongoing effort to restore the historic building.

  She begins by narrating a brief history of the White House. Viewers hear her voice as images of historical drawings and photographs fill the screen. “Piece by piece,” she says, “the interior of the president’s house was put back together.”

  The first lady once again steps before the camera to take viewers on a walk around her new home, now followed by the show’s host, Charles Collingwood of CBS. Jackie’s personal touches are everywhere, from the new draperies, whose designs she sketched herself, to the new guidebook she authorized to raise funds for the restoration. She has scoured White House storage rooms and the National Gallery of Art, turning up assorted treasures such as paintings by Paul Cézanne, Teddy Roosevelt’s drinking mugs, and James Monroe’s gold French flatware. President Kennedy’s new desk was another of Jackie’s finds. The Resolute desk, as it is known, was carved from the timbers of an ill-fated British vessel and was a gift from Queen Victoria to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880. Jackie found it in the White House broadcast room, buried beneath a pile of electronics. She promptly had it relocated to the Oval Office.

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bsp; The first lady escorts the country through the newly refurbished White House. She won an Emmy Award for this televised tour. Here she is showing the State Dining Room. [© Associated Press]

  “Thank you, Mr. President,” concludes reporter Charles Collingwood. “And thank you, Mrs. Kennedy, for showing us this wonderful house in which you live, and all of the wonderful things you’re bringing to it.”

  John Kennedy has joined his wife on camera for the last few minutes of the broadcast special, explaining the importance of Jackie’s ongoing efforts and what the White House means as a symbol of America.

  Jackie’s White House tour is one of the most watched shows in the history of television. In fact, it earns the first lady a special Emmy Award. America is now smitten. Jacqueline Kennedy is a superstar.

  CHAPTER TEN

  EARLY 1962

  Minsk

  IN MINSK, THE OSWALDS’ DAUGHTER IS BORN. Lee Harvey Oswald is ready to return home. The plan is for him, Marina, and baby June Lee to take the train to the American embassy in Moscow to pick up their travel documents. The Oswalds arrive in Moscow on May 24, 1962.

  On June 1, they board a train from Moscow to the Netherlands. Lee Oswald carries a promissory note from the U.S. embassy for $435.71 to help start his life in America. They board the SS Maasdam, bound for America, and stay belowdecks most of the journey. Oswald is ashamed of Marina’s cheap dresses and doesn’t want her to be seen in public. He passes the time in their small cabin writing about his growing disillusionment with governmental power.

  The Maasdam docks in Hoboken, New Jersey, on June 13, 1962. The Oswalds pass through customs without incident and take a small room at a New York City Times Square hotel.

  Lee Harvey and Marina Oswald leaving Minsk, bound for the United States. [© Corbis]

  Thanks to a loan from his brother, Robert, Lee Harvey Oswald and his family fly to Dallas. The city is simmering with a rage that mirrors Oswald’s ongoing personal unhappiness in many ways. The South swung in President Kennedy’s favor during the election, but there are pockets of militant anger; people grumble about Kennedy being the first Roman Catholic president and his desire to bring about racial equality.

  This is the environment into which the Oswald family arrives. They land at a Dallas-area airport called Love Field, where the president and first lady will touch down aboard Air Force One in 17 short months. Lee’s brother takes them to his home in nearby Fort Worth.

  Marina and Lee Harvey Oswald with their daughter, June Lee, in 1962. [© Corbis]

  Oswald is unhappy that his return to the United States has not attracted widespread media attention—or any media attention at all, for that matter. He thinks that he should have been noticed. But even as he fumes that the press is nowhere in sight, he is being watched—but secretly.

  Lee Harvey Oswald holding baby June. [© Corbis]

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  AUGUST 16, 1962

  Fort Worth, Texas

  IT IS BRUTALLY HOT IN FORT WORTH. FBI special agents John Fain and Arnold J. Brown have been waiting all day to see Lee Harvey Oswald. They sit in an unmarked car just down the street from Oswald’s newly rented apartment. Fain and Brown work for J. Edgar Hoover, the head of the FBI. Hoover’s intense preoccupation is finding and arresting anyone who sympathizes with Communists. He seems to suspect almost everybody and has created an atmosphere of suspicion and fear in thousands of innocent people.

  The Oswald case is nothing new to Special Agent Fain. Back when Oswald first defected to the Soviet Union, Fain was assigned a minor investigation of Oswald’s mother because she had mailed $25 to her son in the Soviet Union. The FBI was following even the smallest leads to find Communist sympathizers.

  John Fain had also spoken face-to-face with Oswald just seven weeks earlier, on June 26. Oswald’s case has been designated an “internal security” investigation, based on the concern that his defection might make him a threat to national security. Fain’s job is to find out whether the Russians trained Oswald to perform a job against the United States. Something about the first interview, which lasted two hours, didn’t sit well with Fain. One question that Fain asked and Oswald never answered in a completely truthful manner was whether the Russians demanded anything in return for letting him come back to America. A second question interests Fain: Why did Oswald go to the Soviet Union in the first place? Oswald didn’t answer that one either. He danced around it, talking about “his own personal reasons,” that “it was something that I did.” Fain didn’t like Oswald’s attitude, thinking him proud and rude.

  J. Edgar Hoover, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States. [LOC, DIG-ppmscc-03262]

  John Fain needs these questions answered. He’s a very thorough man and takes it upon himself to interview Lee Harvey Oswald one more time.

  At 5:30 P.M., the two agents see Oswald walking down the street. Fain drives up beside him. “Hi, Lee. How are you?” he says out the car window. “Would you mind talking with us for just a few minutes?”

  The three men talk for a little over an hour. Oswald is friendlier than before, less defensive. He explains that he’s been in touch with the Soviet embassy, but only because it is required for Soviet citizens such as Marina to inform the embassy of their location on a regular basis. When pressed about whether this involved discussions with Soviet intelligence officials, Oswald doesn’t answer directly, but wonders aloud why anyone would want to discuss spying with a guy like him. “He didn’t feel like he was of any importance” to the Russians, Fain will later testify.

  Marina and Lee Harvey Oswald with their daughter, June Lee, in 1962. [© Corbis]

  At 6:45 P.M., Oswald is released from the car and goes inside his home.

  But Lee Harvey Oswald and the FBI will soon meet again.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  OCTOBER 16, 1962

  The White House 8:45 A.M.

  THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES is rolling around on the bedroom floor with his children. The fitness expert Jack LaLanne is on the television telling JFK, Caroline, and John to touch their toes.

  John Jr. visits his father on the porch outside the Oval Office. [JFK Presidential Library and Museum]

  The president will soon get dressed. The kids will stick around and watch cartoons. Jackie might sit with him as he wraps his back brace into place before putting on his shirt. Sometimes during the day, John and Caroline walk into the Oval Office and play on the floor or even beneath the presidential desk. Jackie fiercely protects the children from the public eye. But the president takes a larger view, realizing that America is enthralled by such a young first family and wants to hear about their daily life. Caroline and John have become celebrities in their own right, although they don’t know it. Photographers, writers, news magazines, and daily newspapers chronicling their young lives are just a fact of life.

  The president’s children often visited the Oval Office. In this photograph, Caroline is four years old and John Jr. is 23 months old. [JFK Presidential Library and Museum]

  John, almost two years old, likes to stop at his father’s secretary’s typewriter on his way in to the Oval Office and pretend to type a letter. Caroline, who is nearly five years old, often brings one or more of the family’s dogs when she pays a visit to her father. In fact, the Kennedy children have turned the White House into a menagerie, with dogs, hamsters, a cat, parakeets, and even a pony named Macaroni. JFK is allergic to dog hair, but he never lets on.

  Caroline on her pony, Macaroni, a gift to her from Vice President Johnson. Macaroni received fan mail from people around the country. [JFK Presidential Library and Museum]

  Kennedy, like every president since John Adams became the White House’s first resident in 1800, has learned that life inside the White House is complicated. Mornings are the only time the president can be carefree, unrehearsed, and, best of all, unwatched by a curious public.

  Caroline inspects a snowman built for her outside the White House. [JFK Presidential Library and M
useum]

  But on this Tuesday morning in October, a knock on the president’s bedroom door intrudes on his private time with the children.

  National Security Adviser McGeorge Bundy steps through the door.

  Bundy has very bad news to deliver. He learned of it last night but intentionally waited until now to tell the president. John Kennedy was in New York to deliver a speech and didn’t return to the White House until very late. The national security adviser wanted to make sure Kennedy had a full night of sleep before he received the news. Bundy knows that from now until the moment this problem is solved, the president will be lucky to get any rest. For what McGeorge Bundy is about to tell JFK could change the course of history.

  “Mr. President,” the 43-year-old Bundy calmly informs Kennedy, “there is now hard photographic evidence, which you will see later, that the Russians have offensive missiles in Cuba.”

  United States U-2 spy planes flying over Cuba have confirmed that six Soviet medium-range ballistic missile sites and 21 medium-range bomber planes are on that island, just 90 miles from the United States. Each of the airplanes is capable of launching nuclear weapons from thousands of feet in the air. The medium-range ballistic missiles could travel as far as Arkansas.

  JFK with McGeorge Bundy, special assistant to the president for national security. [JFK Presidential Library and Museum]

  The nuclear bombs the planes and missiles carry could kill 80 million Americans in a matter of minutes. Millions more would die later from the radioactive fallout.