Kennedy Denies Claim By Nixon

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29778, 22 March 1962, Page 13

Kennedy Denies Claim By Nixon

(N .Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) WASHINGTON, March 20. The White House today denied a claim by the former Vice-President, Mr Richard Nixon, that President Kennedy was told during the Presidential election campaign in 1960 about secret plans for an invasion of Cuba.

The White House Secretary, Mr Pierre Salinger, told a press conference that the President, who defeated Mr Nixon in the election, had not been told of the training of the exiles before election day. Mr Nixon, in his new book called ‘‘Six Crises," said he became "enraged'’ when Mr Kennedy called during the campaign for a stronger stand against Cuba. He claimed that Mr Kennedy took this stand after receiving briefings from the Central Intelligence Agency about the training of Cuban exiles who were defeated on Cuba’s beaches in April, 1961. Mr Nixon said Mr Kennedy had put him in a corner and forced him to take a softer line, although, he said, he wass the chief advocate in the Eisenhower Administration for a tough attitude toward the Cuban leader. Dr. Fidel Castro.

Mr Salinger's statement today said the President did not believe that the intelligence briefings were a proper subject of public debate, “but in the light of the account in Mr Nixon’s book it is necessary to say that the then Senator Kennedy was not told before the election of 1960 of the training of troops outside of Cuba or of any plans for ’supporting an invasion of Cuba’.” Mr Salinger said Mr Nixon's account was apparently based on a misunderstanding.

He said Senator Kennedy received two briefings—covering an over-all review of the world situation during which Cuba was mentioned—from Mr Allen Dulles, then head of the Central Intelligence Agency. But Mr Kennedy, he said, was first informed of plans for the Cuban operation in a C.I.A. briefing on November 18, 1960, shortly after the election had taken place. In Whitter, California, Mr Nixon told reporters: “I have no comment at this time, until I have a chance to read the statement. There will be a lot of controversy over the book, I imagine."