341. Memorandum for the Record0
Washington, May 21,
1963.
SUBJECT
- Memorandum of Discussion of Low-Level Flight Over Cuba, attended by The President, Vice President, Secretary of Defense, Deputy Secretary of Defense, General Taylor, Secretary Ball, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Thompson, Mr. Bundy, Mr. McCone
- 1.
- Colonel Steakley presented a plan for a flight over Remedios. Lundahl displayed the relative photography of high- and low-level from previous missions. McCone stated that high-level photography gave no evidence of whether people were at a base. He said the intelligence community did not know whether the four military bases were fully occupied, partially occupied, or not occupied at all. Low-level photography might (but this is not absolutely sure) throw some light on this important question.
- 2.
- Ambassador Thompson pointed
out that a low-level flight during Castro’s visit
in Moscow would exacerbate relations with Castro
and would enhance the prospect of Castro and
Khrushchev agreeing to some
retaliatory action against our missions. After a brief discussion
concerning the pros and cons of the issue, the President decided as
follows:
- 1.
- that low-level flight was necessary, however, there was no immediacy and therefore he suggested it be postponed until after Castro had departed the USSR, now estimated to be about May 28th;
- 2.
- if we rUN one low-level flight, there should be at least two and possibly three, and he therefore would like one or two additional missions to be developed.
The issue is to be raised again.
Action: NRO and Colonel Steakley should develop three priority missions, following the established groundrules, to cover the most important COMOR targets.
- Source: Central Intelligence Agency, DCI/McCone Files, Job 80-B01285A, DCI Meetings with the President, 1 April-30 June 1963. Secret; Eyes Only. Dictated by McCone.↩