Spies and Spooks: The (Mis)Adventures of the CIA

Dulles' Downfall: The Bay of Pigs
The April 1961 attempt to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro in Cuba, however, proved to be Dulles' undoing. The plot, involving anti-Castro exiles, originated under the Dwight D. Eisenhower Administration but continued under John F. Kennedy, whom Dulles had actively cultivated even while his old boss was still President. But the utter disaster of the invasion, crushed by Castro in three days, diminished Kennedy's trust in the CIA chief, and by September 1961, Dulles had been fired. Dulles would be appointed by Lyndon Johnson as a member of the Warren Commission investigating JFK's assassination, providing impetus to decades of conspiracy theories.

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