John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) 35th President. Partially printed document signed, Washington, November 29, 1961. The document is the appointment of John Alexander McCone (1902-1991) as Director of Central Intelligence Agency and is counter-signed by Secretary of State Dean Rusk (1909-1994). McCone was widely credited with being the first Government official to foresee that the Soviet Union would place offensive weapons on Cuba, a move that set off the Cuban missile crisis in 1962. As chairman of the atomic energy panel a few years earlier, he sought to reach agreement with the Soviet Union to stop testing of nuclear weapons. McCone served as CIA Director during the height of the Cold War. He was a key player in the Executive Committee of the National Security Council during the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. The appointment has been archivally matted and framed. McCone replaced long-time CIA Director Allan Dulles, who Kennedy blamed for the Bay of Pigs disaster even though publicly Kennedy assumed complete responsibility for the fiasco. In a tirade after the failed invasion Kennedy threatened to "splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it into the winds". Dulles faced increasing criticism, the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion and several failed assassination plots utilizing CIA-recruited operatives from the Mafia and anti-Castro Cubans directly against Fidel Castro undermined the CIA's and his credibility. Dulles and his staff including Deputy Director Charles Cabell were forced to resign and he was replaced by Republican John McCone. This is his official appointment. Ironically the Mayor of Dallas at the time of Kennedy's assassination was Earle Cabell, the brother of Charles Cabell and Lyndon Johnson appointed Allan Dulles to the Warren Commission, the official government investigation of the assassination.

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