Office of the Historian

302. Memorandum From the Deputy Director for Coordination of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (Williams) to the Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (Vaughn)1

Washington, June 11, 1965.

SUBJECT

  • Minutes of the 303 Committee Meeting June 10, 1965

The minutes of the meeting of the 303 Committee held on June 10, 1965 contain the following items:

“Cuba—Proposed Reactivation of CIAʼs Paramilitary Effort

  • “a. Admiral Raborn stated that he had requested this subject on the agenda and went on to say he felt strongly that as a result of the Dominican situation and increasing subversion in the Hemisphere, we should make Castroʼs life as difficult as possible at home as a deterrent to his mounting interference outside his own borders. There were a number of things that could be done with existing capabilities and we should concentrate on hitting the source of the difficulty.
  • “b. Mr. Bundy observed that the paper2 was a good statement of that viewpoint but we had spent some months in searching for ways to hurt Castro without hurting ourselves more and had not found them. He remained skeptical as to whether any or even a combination of the various methods would permanently damage Castro without our incurring high collateral political costs. Mr. Vance said he had just discussed the methods enumerated in a. through d.3 with the Secretary of Defense, and they had emerged negative on all higher noise-level operations at the present time. Ambassador Thompson indicated State was opposed, if for somewhat different reasons. Continual harassment by the U.S. might stimulate Soviet aid, whereas if left alone, the Soviets might tire of the rising costs of Cuban disarray and ineptitude.
  • “c. Mr. FitzGerald emphasized the problem of internal morale. If the Cubans on the island realized that the U.S. was faint-hearted, they would continue their coalescence into the Castro body politic. Already, agent recruitment was decidedly more difficult. [3 lines of source text not declassified]
  • “d. The limited activities consisting of infiltration/exfiltration operations, intelligence collection, and economic measures appeared to be all the Committee members were prepared to endorse at this time.
  • “e. Mr. Bundy said he would summarize the disparate views and present them to higher authority.”

[Omitted here is discussion of Haiti; see Document 345.]

  1. Source: Department of State, INR/IL Historical Files, 303 Committee Records. Secret; Eyes Only.↩
  2. Reference is to a June 2 memorandum to the 303 Committee entitled “Proposed Reactivation of the CIAʼs Paramilitary Effort Against Cuba.” (Washington National Records Center, Foreign Policy Historical Files 1962–1972, 330 77 0131-#3, Cuba)↩
  3. Items 9a.–9d. were proposals for maritime CIA commando raids against Cuban coastal targets,CIA underwater teamsʼ demolition of ships in Cuban ports, night attacks against the Playa Giron, Cubaʼs only liquid petroleum gas equipped tanker, and/or other Cuban merchant vessels in Cuban territorial waters, and air bombing of selected targets within Cuba, such as the guerrilla warfare training center at Minas Frias, by CIA Cuban exile pilots and non-attributable aircraft. (Ibid.)↩