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Had the original time line for the Bay of Pigs operation held, Eisenhower would have executed it after the election, and Cuba would have been brought back into the fold by Christmas. Ike would have saluted smartly, walked off the stage of history, and there wouldn’t have been a dry eye in the house. But deadlines slip.

Allen Dulles at CIA had Richard Bissell take point on the operation, and his man in Miami was E. Howard Hunt, later of Watergate fame. The Cubans knew him as “Eduardo.” Hunt to his credit didn’t lie to the Cubans. He told them that they had to hold a beachhead for 24 hours minimum, preferably 48 hours. Castro’s fighters would hone in on them like antibodies on an infection. Things would be going on behind their backs in DC, but there would be a series of escalations that would permit their mission to succeed even if they were no longer alive. They could die smiling with the knowledge that Castro had but days to live.

The possible escalations would include Air Force support, long range naval gunnery, intervention by the 82nd and 101st Airborne along with the 1st Marine divisions, and then an all out invasion. Dulles thought the final escalation would not be necessary, but he understood the key boundary condition: A great power cannot afford to lose face. You go in to win, or you don’t go in at all. Dulles understood that he would have no problem with Nixon as president, but he thought that this would be a good opportunity for Kennedy to “make his bones” and prove that the Democrats weren’t soft on the Cold War.

As the operation unfolded, the first escalation came up in the Situation Room. There were thumbs up all around the table. MacNamara? Yes. Rusk? Yes. Bobby? Yes. Adlai Stevenson? “Mr. President, I object! Isn’t this just one more example of the United States beating up on a smaller and poorer nation in this hemisphere?”

Everyone expected Jack Kennedy to turn to Stevenson and say, “Godammit Adlai, shut the hell up!” But Kennedy sat there like Buddha while the discussion turned into a college bull session, much to Dulles’ horror. Stevenson had introduced a new boundary condition: The US must not be seen to be a bully to its neighbors.

As the bull session went on and on, men were dying in Cuba. Then Dulles made the critical error: He looked at his watch. “Mr. President, there are military forces that may need to be placed on alert. We need to make a decision on Air Force support now.” There was a deadly hush in the room. Then Bobby Kennedy said, “Director Dulles, is the CIA attempting to get the President of the United States to do something he doesn’t want to do?” He cat was out of the bag.

The bull session continued. Then Stevenson played his ace: “Mr. President, suppose the Soviets see this provocation as the beginning of World War III and march their army through the Fulda Gap. Suppose this is the event that starts a nuclear war.” Stevenson’s premise was absurd, but his was the boundary condition that carried the day.

After the debacle, Kennedy should have resigned or been impeached and removed, but his wit saved him.