Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963, Volume XI, Cuban Missile Crisis and Aftermath

343. Memorandum From the President’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bundy) to the Members of the Standing Group of the National Security Council⁰

Washington, May 28, 1963.

The meeting this afternoon will be devoted to a number of special problems on Cuba, but I hope we may have a few minutes at the end to take a reading on the general position as it appears to be developing.

1. First, we will turn to the problem of sugar as presented in the papers of the Department of Agriculture.¹ For this part of the discussion, Under Secretary Sundquist will be present for Secretary Freeman.

2. We should briefly discuss a paper on possible U.S. actions in the event of Castro’s death.² For this part of the discussion Mr. Sherman Kent will be present.

3. There are two highly sensitive CIA papers which Mr. McCone has requested that we hold for distribution at the meeting. They deal with a list of possible actions under consideration at CIA and with the specific problem of Cuba’s oil supplies.³

4. I propose at the end to make a brief oral comment on the results of our discussions thus far, as I understand them. My own preliminary conclusions are not optimistic, but that is not an excuse for avoiding the issue.

McGeorge Bundy

0. Source: Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Meetings and Memoranda Series, Standing Group Meeting, 5/28/63. Top Secret; Sensitive.
1. Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman sent Myer Feldman a preliminary memorandum of May 16, bringing him up to date on what the Department of Agriculture had been doing about sugar and its thoughts on future action. Freeman also sent a copy to Bundy. (Ibid.) On May 24 Agriculture submitted another more definitive paper without any indication of authorship. (Ibid.) See the Supplement.
2. Document 338.
3. The analysis of Cuban supply and demand of crude oil and refined petroleum products, May 6, and an undated annotated list of additional covert actions against Cuba. (Both in the Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Meetings and Memoranda Series) See the Supplement.