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How strange that the incident from the entire eight years | spent as Vice President that stands out most prominently in my memory occurred not in the White House but in Peru. There was a rioter who spat on me, and it was with great pleasure that | kicked him in the shins. Back in the safety of our hotel that night, | recalled an early formal debate at Whittier College— “Resolved: that insects are more beneficial than harmful” —because | had been so intrigued as to how insects did not think, they just acted. Now, having myself acted totally without hesitation, | was able to identify with those insects. As Vice President, | labored diligently behind the scenes to establish Operation 40, by which our CIA covertly trained Cuban intelligence officers in exile. Operation 40 was to serve as our link between the White House and the CIA in April of 1961. My plan was to invade Cuba. Ironically, during the 1960 presidential campaign, Kennedy began advocating my plan. | could not reveal that it was a/ready in effect because Operation 40 was a secret project. Further, | found myself in the schizophrenic position of attacking my own idea whenever Kennedy articulated it, because it violated our treaty commitments. zk ke HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_015101