Event
Kennedy’s reported remark about splintering the CIA
A line attributed to President Kennedy: that he wanted “to splinter the C.I.A. in a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds.” The earliest printing traced is The New York Times of 25 April 1966, which says he said it to an unnamed official.
- Dates
- 25 Apr 1966
- Also known as
- splinter the CIA in a thousand pieces
Connections 2
involved
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John F. Kennedy
Said to have spoken it, to an unnamed official
According to C.I.A.: Maker of Policy, or Tool?
Scholarship & press
12
The article gives the remark as Kennedy’s own words, said to an unnamed official; it does not say who told the Times. Gizmodo (2017) found no record of it from before 1966.
appears in
- C.I.A.: Maker of Policy, or Tool? Printed here as said to “one of the highest officials” of the Kennedy Administration, who is not named Scholarship & press 1
Timeline 1 date
- 25 Apr 1966 Kennedy’s reported remark about splintering the CIA
Proof 2 sources
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C.I.A.: Maker of Policy, or Tool? Survey Finds Widely Feared Agency Is Tightly Controlled, The New York Times, 25 Apr 1966.
Scholarship & press
Archived copy
said to one of the highest officials of his Administration that he wanted "to splinter the C.I.A. in a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds."
And President Kennedy, as the enormity of the Bay of Pigs disaster came home to him, said to one of the highest officials of his Administration that he wanted "to splinter the C.I.A. in a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds."
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The Real Story Behind That JFK Quote About Destroying the CIA, Gizmodo, 10 Mar 2017.
Scholarship & press
The only attribution we have is an anonymous source from the Kennedy administration by a New York Times reporter three years after Kennedy was assassinated.
The phrase “splinter into a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds” actually dates back to at least the early 19th century and has decidedly religious origins.
Page history 1 change
- Add 55 stories, each checked against its sources96e92fe6
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