That "whole Bay of Pigs thing"

[Colin Crow]

"Vice-President Nixon, who portrayed himself in his memoirs as one of the original architects of the plan to overthrow Castro, proposed to the CIA that they support "goon squads and other direct action groups" inside and outside of Cuba. The Vice President repeatedly sought to interfere in the invasion planning.  Through his national security aide, Nixon demanded that William Pawley, "a big fat political cat," as Nixon?s aide described him to the CIA, be given briefings and access to CIA officers to share ideas. Pawley pushed the CIA to support untrustworthy exiles as part of the effort to overthrow Castro. ?Security already has been damaged severely,"the head of the invasion planning reported, about the communications made with one, Rubio Padilla, one of Pawley's favorite militants."

https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu//NSAEBB/NSAEBB355/index.htm

[Colin Crow]

"President Kennedy?s former press secretary, Pierre Salinger, said Maheu told him the CIA-Mafia plots against Castro were authorized by Nixon:

I knew Maheu well. He told me [in 1968, when Salinger was soliciting Maheu?s boss, Howard Hughes, for a campaign contribution to Robert Kennedy?s White House bid] about his meetings with the Mafia. He said he had been in contact with the CIA, that the CIA had been in touch with Nixon, who had asked them to go forward with this project . . . It was Nixon who had him [Maheu] do a deal with the Mafia in Florida to kill Castro.?"

http://www.thehistoryreader.com/contemporary-history/nixons-bay-pigs-secrets/

[Jerry Freeman]

The issue of Cuba came up in the 1960 presidential debates.
Nixon about choked when he heard JFK mention something that he was supposed to have been briefed on and apparently wasn't.
There was a plan to invade Cuba and Kennedy let something about incursion blurt out. I can't recall exactly when...but here is the second of four debates in Oct 1960 & starting around 3:02 ---

Notice that there were no women reporters asking the questions back then

[Colin Crow]

Hi Jerry,

I seem to remember that Kennedy managed to "out-hawk" Nixon on Cuba before the election. This was of much concern to Nixon, after all the Cuba invasion etc were his, yet he was hamstrung at the time of the debates. I had thought it was the during the 4th debate, probably faulty memory.

Clearly the BOP operation and the CIA/Mafia based Castro assassination plots originated with Nixon. After all he was the "President-in-waiting". The blame for CIA/Mafia usually falls to Bissell, but such actions surely required at least WH approval.

Does any evidence exist that the incoming Pres was briefed and approved of the Castro plots?

[Jerry Freeman]

Does any evidence exist that the incoming Pres was briefed and approved of the Castro plots?

There is no such evidence because he wasn't briefed on any plot against Castro or any plans to invade Cuba since everyone thought that Richard Nixon would certainly win the election anyway and it wouldn't be necessary.
 Laughable- that Nixon played footsie with Batista but suggested that he didn't consider him a dictator [or if he did ...El Presidente was our dictator] so then he wasn't so bad.

[Richard Rubio]

On October 26, 2017, declassified documents revealed that US Attorney General Robert Kennedy hesitated to recruit the Mafia in assassination attempts on Castro due to his push against organized crime.[10]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_attempts_on_Fidel_Castro

This sure rings a bell, it would've gone against the trend of what we, the USA, did back in those days.

[Colin Crow]

The relevant document referred to in the wiki entry appears to be this......

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/docid-32112745.pdf

A report by David Belin from 1975 (Rockefeller Commission). The faulty memories of Bissell and Edwards, trying to move the Castro plots to the Kennedy administration, are noted. From what I have read so far, RFK was only briefed about the Mafia plots in May 1962 after Houston tells Edwards that the Attorney General should be told the whole story. According to Houston, RFK was displeased about any Mafia involvement and he was to be informed before any such undertakings were proposed in the future. RFK sent a memo to that extent on May 9 to FBI Director Hoover.

It would appear that activity until that time was undertaken by the CIA via the original previous administration approval (read Nixon!).