[The taping begins while the conversation is already in progress.]
President Kennedy: . . . Boston, which gives them a pretty good little issue.
Lawrence O'Brien∇: Yeah.
President Kennedy: Can't we do something about that?
O'Brien: Yeah, well, actually, this whole damn thing is up in the air now. Guys like [Senator Edmund S.] Muskie [D-Maine] and others, guys--by the time I put together all the inquiries we've had today I think it'll probably cover the whole waterfront, and we'll just have to review this entire operation. And I'm going to--
President Kennedy: They didn't clear this at at all, did they?
O'Brien: No. No. Well, they--it seems a rather--very frankly, it was just a stupid operation all the way. I've got Mahaffey[?] on the other line, incidentally--
President Kennedy: Yeah.
O'Brien: --who has just come from the governor1 --
President Kennedy: Yeah.
O'Brien: --and, of course, he said the governor--it's the old story that he never said that it would get you in '64, and reporters have called him all--from all over the country, and he has denied he has said that.
President Kennedy: Yeah. That's fine.
O'Brien: That he still insists that Arkansas fliers participated in the invasion, however.
President Kennedy: Yeah. Well, you tell him what they did is they participated in the training down there in Nicaragua--
O'Brien: Yeah.
President Kennedy: --and Guatemala, but they didn't fly in combat.
O'Brien: Yeah. That's what I had told him initially. That's what he told the governor, and the governor said, "Well, hell"--he wasn't quarrelling. He said--the governor's going to call me later tonight, but he said, hell, "I'm not--I don't want to get into any--"
President Kennedy: Well, why don't you just tell him that what we want to do is just put the goddamn thing to rest.
O'Brien: Right.
President Kennedy: So whatever they can do down there to just shut it all up, is fine with us. But the guards issued some statement about--he can just say that they've--he can try to cover his tracks and we'll try to end it.
O'Brien: Yeah. All right.
President Kennedy: OK.
O'Brien: Fine.
President Kennedy: And then we ought to get this thing straightened out. I don't want it around that we're taking business out of Scranton out to--which is depressed--up to--so I think we ought to put out a statement saying that we're holding up--or the Secretary of the Treasury [C. Douglas Dillon∇] ought to put it out in the morning--we're holding up all these transfers.2
O'Brien: All right.
President Kennedy: Because I just think it's stupid.
O'Brien: Yeah. OK.
President Kennedy: Right. Bye now.