Kennedy’s “anguish and dejection” were evident to everyone around him. Under Secretary of State Chester Bowles said that Kennedy was clearly “quite shattered.” Kennedy himself related that it was the worst experience of his life.26 He said he felt personally guilty for those who had died in the invasion. And it was a national humiliation. After the Bay of Pigs, two things changed for the JFK presidency, which had started with such idealism. From then on, he would have to deal with the CIA Wisner had created and with the problems it had bequeathed to him, and he would now govern while being
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