dulles, for odd reasons, was not actually in the country when the invasion occurred, but richard bissell made a number of attempts to get john kennedy to approve air power. there was an immense amount of firepower just offshore including an aircraft carrier with a-4 fighter jets. so bissell kept saying let us have these to give a little bit of air cover to the brigade. the brigade is there pinned down, begging for help. and if you read the intercept coming in from the beaches, they're just heart remember. ing. please, help us. please come. we're dying here. rescue us. just send in one plane, send in some planes, please. well, kennedy never did, but the cia pushed for it. some people, some people think bissell didn't push quite hard enough, but certainly dulles wanted that. so i think that, certainly, you and this woman could be friends. [laughter] here please. >> i just saw the series on television, "the kennedys," and one of the segments they covered in detail was the invasion. two parts. my first part is how accurate, if you saw that series -- >> [inaudible] >> oh, okay. sorry. one of

of the highest profile operations the cia had planned in many, many years to joe bissell -- >> richard bissell. >> richard business l who was an underling of his? >> yeah. in dulles' papers i found the invitation, it was from the young presidents' association of america. basically, this was a retreat for young american executives, and they'd invited alan dulles to come talk to them. and dulles went because it was thought if he didn't go, it would be a tipoff to castro that the invasion was about to happen, and that if he did go to puerto rico, it would be one more indication that the united states had nothing to do with this. now, in moscow the newspapers immediately, as early as the 18th, were saying alan dulles was intentionally in dulles so he could run the operation from there. that's not true. but dulles did give the speech the same time the chips were exploding in the bay bay of pig. it was rather bizarre, but it was thought to be the right thing to do. he department know much -- he didn't know much about what was happening until he came back that evening, and he learned how things were

asking about where the budges came from, i found out in my research, richard bissell was a brilliant economist, a yale graduate and became the executor of finance for the marshall plan after world war ii. there was something like $13 billion that was at the disposal of richard bissell to help rebuild europe, and a friend came knocking at his door one night in washington, d.c., a man by the name of frank widnor and they sat in front of the fireplace and he said, you know, we need money for this group we have over at the cia, and because they had a mutual friend, bissell knew better to ask more questions and just agreed that that would be all right, and that -- those funds were diverted over from the marshall plan to the cia about two and a half years later, bissell became the so -- so board nant and area 51 was up and running. >> okay. several people want you to cut to the little men. >> uh-huh. [laughter] >> i told anni before we started the left time i started, he complained to me about a brilliant book on the civil rights movement and all anybodimented to ask about about martin lut

there was $13 billion at the disposal of richard bissell to help rebuild europe. and they sat in 58 -- in front of his fireplace to say we need the money and because they had a mutual friend he knew better than to ask more questions and agreed that would be all right. those funds were diverted fromo the marshall plan to thef cia about two and a half years be later he became the support and it to allen dulles and area 51 was up and running. >> people want you to cut to the little men. [laughter] i told a annie before restarted abernathy complained he wrote dave billion book in the history of a movement to some of the seven pages of this book who were the lyphomed end seenter, the in roswell? can you comment on that u connection? what about ufos and aliens? go for it too. [laughter] >> curious crowd. cen nobody wants to hear about s four and weapons with littleis green men.s but first, as a journalist i interviewed a lot of men for this book the largest number that have ever gone on record with area 51 and they all use their names. there is one exception that is the