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Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-LCH-01
In this interview Heinz discusses how he came to work in the Office of International Security Affairs [ISA] in the Department of Defense [DOD]; the changeover in the DOD between the Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy Administrations; Heinz’s view of the Bay of Pigs; the regular operations and organization within ISA, including the different regional desks’ responsibilities; relationships between the ISA and other agencies; ISA as “the little State Department”; differences of opinion between DOD and the State Department, the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff; the debate over whether to put troops in Laos; Robert S. McNamara and Roswell L. Gilpatric; the status of Okinawa; the question of U.S. defense perimeters; and W. Averell Harriman’s trip to Geneva and the neutralization solution for Laos, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-RFK-08
In this interview Robert F. Kennedy [RFK] discusses John F. Kennedy’s [JFK] Cabinet and appointing the various secretaries; problems in and JFK’s wariness of the Department of State; the ideal State Department organization; problems with Dean Rusk; Maxwell D. Taylor’s Cuba investigation; the Bay of Pigs and its effect on U.S. action in Laos; John McCone’s prediction of missiles in Cuba; Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson and foreign policy; JFK’s vice-presidential choice at the 1960 Democratic National Convention; Johnson’s hesitant acceptance of the vice-presidential slot; RFK’s appointment as Attorney General; RFK’s involvement in staffing the White House for JFK and other presidential appointments; Lord Harlech (William David Ormsby-Gore); and State Department staff, among other issues.
Photograph
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-ST-272-1-61
President John F. Kennedy meets with members of his administration regarding the budget for the Department of Defense at the Joseph P. Kennedy residence in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. Clockwise, from top: President Kennedy; David E. Bell, Director, Bureau of the Budget; Roswell Gilpatric, Deputy Secretary of Defense; Jerome B. Wiesner, Special Assistant to the President for Science and Technology; Theodore C. “Ted” Sorensen, Special Counsel to the President; McGeorge Bundy, National Security Advisor; unidentified man; General Lyman Lemnitzer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; General Maxwell D. Taylor, Military Representative of the President; and Robert S. McNamara, Secretary of Defense.
Collection
USDD
Records 1960-1964 (bulk 1961-1963). Microfilm copies of incoming and outgoing cables, Secretary of Defense's classified files and correspondence, material on the Special Group (Counter-Insurgency). Hard copy consists of Current News compilations and bound public statements of Secretary Robert S. McNamara and Deputy Secretary Roswell L. Gilpatric.