Somehow, word of the plan leaked to the press. On January 10, 1961, the New York Times ran a front page story under the headline, “U.S. HELPS TRAIN AN ANTI-CASTRO FORCE AT SECRET GUATEMALAN BASE.” The fact that the CIA’s secret mission to overthrow Castro was no longer a secret troubled no one in Washington. On March 11, 1961, Kennedy invited to the White House CIA Director Allen Dulles and Richard Bissell, the CIA’s chief of operations; JFK wanted to know, in detail, the plans for the invasion of Cuba. Dulles and Bissell explained that after U.S. aircraft had run bombing missions over the Bay of Pigs area, Cubans recruited from exiles living in Miami would take the beach. The CIA men expected that the invasion would inspire anti-Castro Cubans to rise up and overthrow the dictator.
Kennedy didn’t like the idea of beginning the invasion with air strikes. “Too spectacular,” he said. “It sounds like D-Day. You have to reduce the noise level of the this thing.”