Chuck Todd

He told me that he would make to these CIA sort of, whatever you want to call them, officers, people that were just trying to find out information.

What could you tell us about Castro?

And he'd say, hey, it's not a good guy.

So be careful.

But there was a real back and forth.

How much should they be?

They were trying to see, was it worth sort of wrapping their arms around Castro?

And it was a constant back and forth at that time.

But let's zoom out.

OK, because none of this is happening in isolation.

This is early 1961 when the Bay of Pigs itself happens.

Let me close with this.

I had Jack Danforth on recently, who's just I mean, it's amazing.

It's a world that's still rattled by Sputnik and shaped by the fear of a missile gap that the new young president, John Kennedy, had run on.

Ninety two.

And he's you think he was 72.

Like, you know, he's, you know, just one of the great gentlemen of of of the U.S.

So Cold War tensions are super high.

Senate back.

You know, when people say the good old days, he's one of the people I would envision envision in my head.