230. Editorial Note
Photographs obtained from a U-2 reconnaissance mission flown over Cuba on August 29, 1962, revealed that surface-to-air missile sites were under construction on the island. Deputy Director of Central Intelligence Marshall Carter conveyed the information on August 31 to McGeorge Bundy at the White House. For further information, see Foreign Relations, 1961–1963, volume X, page 968.
In a memorandum to the President, August 31, Bundy stated that “we have two problems here which should be kept separate. The first is our reaction to the current step, and the second is our preparations to react against something which would require or make possible a major military operation against Cuba. The present actions in Cuba do not justify such action.” Accompanying the memorandum was Bundyʼs analysis of the probable impact of the introduction of Soviet missiles into Cuba. He argued that surface-to-air missiles would “substantially increase Communist defensive capabilities there” but would not “carry any increased direct threat to the safety of the U.S. mainland.” Surface-to-surface missiles with nuclear warheads, on the other hand, “would constitute a very significant military threat to the continental U.S.,” and “it appears probable that on military grounds alone, the establishment of such a capability would be unacceptable.” For text, see ibid., pages 1002–1006.
In a memorandum to Secretary of State Rusk, September 1, Director of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research Hilsman concluded, among [Page 491] other things, that “current Soviet moves in Cuba do not appear to be synchronized with Soviet moves in Berlin, but they have a common root in Moscowʼs growing sense of power, and Moscow may hope that increased tensions in one area will lead to Western concessions in the other.” In a memorandum to the President, September 3, Walt Rostow, Counselor of the Department of State, called the Soviet military deliveries “a testing thrust by Moscow” which “places before us the question of where and how we should draw the line with respect to unacceptable action and behavior by the Communists in Cuba and the Hemisphere.” For texts of both memoranda, see ibid., pages 1014–1022 and 1025–1032.
On September 4 the White House released a statement by President Kennedy in which he noted the presence of antiaircraft defensive missiles in Cuba. Kennedy added, however, that there was no evidence of organized Soviet combat forces in Cuba, nor of military bases provided to the Soviet Union, nor of the presence of weapons with an offensive capability, such as ground-to-ground missiles. “Were it to be otherwise, the gravest issues would arise.” For text, see Department of State Bulletin, September 24, 1962, page 450.