Editing Adlai Stevenson II (section)

===Bay of Pigs incident===

In April 1961 Stevenson suffered the greatest humiliation of his diplomatic career in the [[Bay of Pigs invasion]]. After hearing rumors that "a lot of refugees wanted to go back and overthrow Castro", Stevenson voiced his skepticism about an invasion, but "he was kept on the fringes of the operation, receiving...nine days before the invasion, only an unduly vague briefing by [[Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.]]" and the CIA.<ref name="Dallek, p. 142">(Dallek, p. 142)</ref> Senior CIA official [[Tracy Barnes]] told Stevenson and his staff that "there was going to be a clandestine operation in Cuba...it was strictly a Cuban affair. It would have some American cooperation, but only with the training and financing."<ref>(Wyden, pp. 156–157)</ref> According to historian Peter Wyden, Barnes did not tell Stevenson that there would be a large-scale invasion of Cuba, nor did he provide details about the full extent of American support for, and involvement with, the Cuban rebels, nor did he tell Stevenson about the planned air strikes to destroy Castro's air force.<ref name="Wyden, p. 157">(Wyden, p. 157)</ref> Kennedy Library historian Sheldon Stern interviewed Ambassador [[Charles W. Yost]], Stevenson's deputy, who attended the meeting and confirmed that Yost had been suspicious of the story from the start. Yost agreed that this was another one of the CIA's "clumsy tricks". Assistant Secretary of State [[Harlan Cleveland]], who attended the briefing, felt that Barnes was too evasive in his description of the operation, and that it was clear that Stevenson was not to be given the full details of the invasion plan.<ref name="Wyden, p. 157"/> Historian [[Garry Wills]] has written that "news of the invasion was leaking out...Castro knew the landings would occur; only Adlai Stevenson was kept in the dark" about the invasion by President Kennedy and his aides.<ref>(Wills, p. 228)</ref>

Kennedy, anticipating that Stevenson might be angered at being left out of the discussions over whether to invade Cuba, told Schlesinger that "the integrity and credibility of Adlai Stevenson constitute one of our great national assets. I don't want to do anything to jeopardize that", and he asked Schlesinger to let Stevenson know that the president was shielding him from many of the details to protect him in case the clandestine operation failed.<ref>(Wyden, p. 156)</ref> Instead, as [[Robert Dallek]] has written, "by leaving him out of the discussion it led to his humiliation". Unaware that the anti-Castro Cuban exiles landing at the [[Bay of Pigs]] were being armed and assisted directly by the CIA and US Navy, and that American pilots were participating in bombing raids of Cuban targets, Stevenson unwittingly "repeated a CIA cover story in a speech before the UN General Assembly".<ref name="Dallek, p. 142"/> He argued that the rebels were not assisted in any way by the U.S. government; when this claim was proven to be false Stevenson complained that "I took this job on the understanding that I would be consulted and kept fully informed on everything. Now my credibility has been compromised and therefore my usefulness."<ref>(Baker, p. 416)</ref> When he told his friend Harlan Cleveland that his own government had "deliberately tricked" him into believing there was no direct American involvement in the invasion, Cleveland replied "I feel as betrayed as you do."<ref>(Wyden, p. 190)</ref> Stevenson seriously considered resigning, but was convinced by his friends and President Kennedy to stay.<ref>(Baker, pp. 416–417)</ref>