Preface

The Foreign Relations of the United States series presents the official documentary historical record of major foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity of the United States Government. The series documents the facts and events that contributed to the formulation of policies and includes evidence of supporting and alternative views to the policy positions ultimately adopted.

The Historian of the Department of State is charged with the responsibility for the preparation of the Foreign Relations series. The staff of the Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs, plans, researches, compiles, and edits the volumes in the series. This documentary editing proceeds in full accord with the generally accepted standards of historical scholarship. Official regulations codifying specific standards for the selection and editing of documents for the series were first promulgated by Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg on March 26, 1925. These regulations, with minor modifications, guided the series through 1991.

A new statutory charter for the preparation of the series was established by Public Law 102–138, the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1992 and 1993, which was signed by President George Bush on October 28, 1991. Section 198 of P.L. 102–138 added a new Title IV to the Department of State’s Basic Authorities Act of 1956 (22 USC 4351, et seq.).

The statute requires that the Foreign Relations series be a thorough, accurate, and reliable record of major United States foreign policy decisions and significant United States diplomatic activity. The volumes of the series should include all records needed to provide comprehensive documentation of major foreign policy decisions and actions of the United States Government. The statute also confirms the editing principles established by Secretary Kellogg: the Foreign Relations series is guided by the principles of historical objectivity and accuracy; records should not be altered or deletions made without indicating in the published text that a deletion has been made; the published record should omit no facts that were of major importance in reaching a decision; and nothing should be omitted for the purposes of concealing a [Typeset Page IV] defect in policy. The statute also requires that the Foreign Relations series be published not more than 30 [Facsimile Page 4] years after the events recorded. The editors are convinced that this microfiche supplement, which was compiled in 1990–1992, meets all regulatory, statutory, and scholarly standards of selection and editing.

Structure and Scope of the Foreign Relations Series

This supplement is part of a subseries of the Foreign Relations series for the years 1961–1963. The subseries presents in 25 print volumes and 5 microfiche supplements a documentary record of major foreign policy decisions and actions of President Kennedy’s administration. The record of U.S. policy toward Cuba and its international ramifications, including the events and policy discussions attending the failed invasion at the Bay of Pigs in 1961 and the Cuban missile crisis of October 1962, is presented in Foreign Relations, 1961–1963, volume X, Cuba, 1961–1962 and volume XI, Cuban Missile Crisis and Aftermath. Foreign Relations, 1961–1963, volume XII presents the record of U.S. foreign policy toward Argentina, Brazil, British Guiana, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Panama, and Peru as well as documentation on U.S. involvement in the establishment of the Alliance for Progress and U.S. policies regarding Latin American security issues.

The microfiche publication presents additional documents that supplement the printed record on policies with respect to Cuba. The publication also includes documents on U.S. policies toward Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, and Venezuela that deserve to be published in the Foreign Relations series but because of space limitations cannot be included in the printed volume. Of particular importance are 1960 documents on the planning for the Bay of Pigs operation that were not included in the 1958–1960 Cuba volume, notes based on meetings of President Kennedy and the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the missile crisis, additional intelligence on the missile crisis and aftermath, and the formal appraisal of the Bay of Pigs operation by the CIA Inspector General including the internal commentary that it generated within the Central Intelligence Agency.

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Sources for the Foreign Relations Series

The Foreign Relations statute requires that the published record in the Foreign Relations series include all records needed to provide comprehensive documentation on major foreign pol [Facsimile Page 5] icy decisions and actions of the U.S. Government. It further requires that government agencies, departments, and other entities of the U.S. Government cooperate with the Department of State Historian by providing full and complete access to records pertinent to foreign policy decisions and actions and by providing copies of selected records. In preparing the documentation in this microfiche regarding policies toward Cuba, the editors benefited from unprecedented access to the records of the CIA as well as from the assistance of the CIA’s Center for the Study of Intelligence. The preparation of the other portions of this microfiche documenting aspects of U.S. policy toward 11 Western Hemisphere nations was carried out prior to the expansion of access for State Department historians in CIA records developed in cooperation with the CIA History Staff. That portion of the microfiche therefore does not reflect the range of intelligence activities and information comparable to that presented with respect to Cuba.

The editors had complete access to all the retired records and papers in the Department of State including certain intelligence-related files maintained in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research for the Cuba supplement.

The editors of the Foreign Relations series also had access to the papers of President Kennedy and other White House foreign policy records at the John F. Kennedy Library. The records maintained and preserved there include some of the most significant foreign affairs-related documentation from other federal agencies. Department of State historians also had full access to records of the Department of Defense, particularly the records of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Secretary of Defense and his major assistants.

The Central Intelligence Agency currently provides access for Department historians to high-level and working-level intelligence documents from those records still in the custody of that Agency. Department historians’ access is arranged by the History Staff of the Center for the Study of [Typeset Page VI] Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency. The development of this access arrangement coincided with the research of many of the volumes for the 1961–1963 triennium. The documents included here for volumes X and XI reflect this expanded access to intelligence records, which was undertaken with the invaluable cooperation of the Central Intelligence Agency History Staff of the Center for the Study of Intelligence. The research of documents for the micro [Facsimile Page 6] fiche supplement for volume XII was completed before such expanded access was achieved. The editors decided to proceed to publication with what documentation had already been acquired rather than delay the supplement’s publication further beyond the 30-year line.

The List of Sources (pages 1–11) lists the files consulted both in government repositories and in private collections for the print volumes and the microfiche supplement.

Principles of Document Selection for the Foreign Relations Series

In preparing each volume of the Foreign Relations series, the editors are guided by some general principles for the selection of documents. Each editor, in consultation with the General Editor and other senior editors, determines the particular issues and topics to be documented either in detail, in brief, or in summary. Some general decisions are also made regarding issues that cannot be documented in the volume but will be addressed in a microfiche supplement or in bibliographical notes.

Scope and Focus of Documents Researched and Selected for the Microfiche Supplement to Foreign Relations, 1961–1963, Volumes X, XI, and XII

The research for print volumes X and XI was completed in 1996. The research for volume XII and the American Republics compilations in the microfiche supplement was completed in 1992. The principles of selection followed by the editors for the print volumes are described in the prefaces of those volumes. The volumes may be used without this supplement, but the supplement should be used in conjunction with the printed volumes.

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The documents selected for this microfiche publication by the editors of volumes X and XI provide additional details on the major issues covered, as well as selected documents of less than major significance not chosen for inclusion in the print volumes. This supplement also includes several lengthy attachments to printed documents for which there was no space in the respective volumes. The microfiche supplement to volume XII is different in that it includes the primary selections for U.S. policy toward countries that were not included in the print volume. The Office of the Historian determined that the documentary record of certain episodes in U.S. relations with and policies taken during the Kennedy Presidency toward Bolivia, Chile, Co [Facsimile Page 7] lombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, and Venezuela were important for a complete and accurate record of policies with regard to the Western Hemisphere and would be adequately available to users of the Foreign Relations series published in a microfiche supplement. The determination by no means implies that these 11 nations were any less important to the United States and its interests abroad. It means only that in the Kennedy Presidency foreign policy problems and episodes elsewhere in the hemisphere were more urgent and took more of the President’s time and attention and that of his advisers. For this reason the editors decided to focus on publishing the documentary record of these events and policies in the print volume. The documents assembled in this fiche publication regarding policies for the 11 countries were compiled as if they were to be published in printed form. They have, however, not been edited or annotated in any way.

The List of Documents, which includes for each document a title, date, participants (for memoranda of conversation), from/to information, classification, number of pages, and source citation, as well as a one-sentence summary, is part of this printed guide and appears on the first two microfiche cards. The printed guide also includes Lists of Sources, Abbreviations, and Persons.

Advisory Committee on Historical Diplomatic Documentation

The Advisory Committee on Historical Diplomatic Documentation, established under the Foreign Relations statute, [Typeset Page VIII] reviews records, advises, and makes recommendations concerning the Foreign Relations series. The Advisory Committee monitors the overall compilation and editorial process of the series and advises on all aspects of the preparation and declassification of the series. Although the Advisory Committee does not attempt to review the contents of individual volumes in the series, it does monitor the overall process and makes recommendations on particular problems that come to its attention. The Advisory Committee did not review this microfiche supplement.

Declassification Review

The final declassification review of this microfiche supplement resulted in the decision to withhold 1 percent from volume X (no documents denied), 2 percent from volume XI (2 documents denied), and 1 percent from volume XII (4 docu [Facsimile Page 8] ments denied). The remaining documents, together with the documents published in the printed volumes, provide an accurate account of the foreign policy issues confronting, and the policies undertaken by the U.S. Government concerning Cuba and the American Republics during this period.

The former Division of Historical Documents Review of the Office of Freedom of Information, Privacy, and Classification Review, Bureau of Administration, Department of State, conducted the declassification review of the documents published in this volume. The review was conducted in accordance with the standards set forth in Executive Order 12356 on National Security Information, which was superseded by Executive Order 12958 on April 20, 1995, and applicable laws.

Under Executive Order 12356, information that concerns one or more of the following categories, and the disclosure of which reasonably could be expected to cause damage to the national security, requires classification:

The principle guiding declassification review is to release all information, subject only to the current requirements of national security as embodied in law and regulation. Declassification decisions entailed concurrence of the appropriate geographic and functional bureaus in the Department of State, other concerned agencies of the U.S. Government, and the appropriate foreign governments regarding specific documents of those governments.

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Acknowledgements

The editors wish to acknowledge the assistance of the federal agencies, particularly the National Archives and Records Administration, for their cooperation in granting access to their records. They also thank officials at the John F. Kennedy Library, in particular Suzanne Forbes, and the officials at the Lyndon B. Johnson Library of the National Archives and Records Administration, the History Staff at the Central Intelligence Agency, especially Mary McAuliffe, Vivienne Manber at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, and other officials of specialized repositories who assisted in the collection of documents for this volume.

Louis J. Smith did the research for the supplement to volumes X and XI, and he and Charles S. Sampson selected the documents through the Cuban missile crisis. Edward C. Keefer selected the documents beginning with November 1962 through to the end of 1963. W. Taylor Fain III did the research for volume XII, and he, Edward C. Keefer, and David W. Mabon made the selections for the individual compilations. Taylor Fain selected documents for Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Jamaica, Mexico, and Venezuela; Edward Keefer selected documents for El Salvador [Typeset Page X] and Honduras; and David Mabon selected documents for Guatemala. All editors worked under the general supervision of then Editor in Chief John P. Glennon. Vicki E. Futscher prepared the List of Documents.