Office of the Historian

290. Memorandum for the Record0

Washington, February 28, 1963.

On Rules of Engagement, the President made it very clear in the meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff today, and the Chiefs agreed, that [Page 713] they should amend the present Rules, which were approved in November, 1960. The President also made it very clear that according to the present Rules, in the case of an incident where we are attacked, etc., we can chase them to the Cuban airspace and not into it. These Rules will prevail until another incident arises. But the President feels that we must have a chance to decide in Washington whether or not this has been a political decision of Castro’s government before we risk one of our aircraft flying clear into Cuban airspace and being shot down by one of their SAM outfits. He would hate to have this sequence of events occur without having a chance to evaluate the situation.

C.V. Clifton1
  1. Source: Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Clifton Series, JCS Conferences with the President, Vol. II. 2/28/63-9/9/63. Top Secret.↩
  2. Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.↩