Office of the Historian

297. Memorandum for the Record0

Washington, March 22, 1963.

At the President’s press briefing on Thursday morning (March 21),1 the question of the activities of Alpha 66 and similar groups arose.2 The President expressed some concern as to why we were without good intelligence on the intentions of these groups. We might well want to prevent them from engaging in further raids, and at the present we appeared to be without any capability to do so.

In consequence of this observation, I spoke with the Attorney General, Mr. Helms and, the next day, with Mr. McCone. I expressed the President’s concern and made the point that it would be undesirable for a jurisdictional boundary line between the activities of the FBI and the CIA to prevent our doing as much as we should be able to do in this matter. All agreed that the matter would be examined and an improvement in our means of dealing with it effected.

CK
  1. Source: Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Countries Series, Cuba, Exiles, 3/63. Top Secret; Sensitive.↩
  2. On March 18 a Cuban refugee group, Alpha 66, mounted attacks on a Soviet ship and Soviet installations in Cuba. On March 19 the Department of State issued a statement that it was “strongly opposed to hit-and-rUN attacks on Cuba by splinter refugee groups.” The statement continued, “such raids do not weaken the grip of the Communist regime on Cuba—indeed they may strengthen it.” The statement concluded that the U.S. Government was investigating the raid to see if U.S. law was violated. For text, see American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1963, pp. 266. In his press conference, Kennedy stated that “our best information was that they did not come from the United States.” He also stated that the United States did not support the group and had no connection with it. (Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States:John F. Kennedy, 1963, pp. 277-278)↩
  3. Under Secretary Ball had nine telephone conversations with Department of State, Justice, and White House officials between 9:10 a.m. and 2:15 p.m., March 19, prior to the release of the Department of State’s statement. Ball was told by U. Alexis Johnson that the United States had no connection with Alpha 66; but as Ball observed, “nobody is going to believe this.”Ball noted that the actions of Alpha 66 were in clear violation of the U.S. neutrality laws. (Kennedy Library, Ball Papers, Telephone Conversations, Cuba)↩