437. NSC Executive Committee record of action, October 271
NSC Executive Committee Record of Action, October 27, 1962, 4:00 PM
1. Secretary McNamara gave fragmentary reports of today’s daylight reconnaissance mission. One plane is overdue and several are said to have encountered ground fire.
2. The President directed that the planned night reconnaissance mission be held up until the full report on the daylight mission was received. The night mission was later called off.
3. The President ordered the immediate dispatch to U Thant of the following message:
“A number of proposals have been made to you and to the United States in the last thirty-six hours. I would appreciate your urgently ascertaining whether the Soviet Union is willing immediately to cease work on these bases in Cuba and render the weapons inoperable under UN verification so that various solutions can be discussed.”
4. Secretary Rusk summarized the air incident in the Far East involving a U–2 overflying the USSR due to navigational difficulties which resulted in Soviet fighters being scrambled from a base near Wrangel Island. The President decided not to say anything about the incident unless the Soviets publicized it.
5. A letter from the President to Khrushchev was discussed and approved.
6. General Taylor reported on current military planning, recommending that air surveillance be continued. The President directed that the day air reconnaissance mission be flown tomorrow without fighter escort. However, if MIG planes attack the reconnaissance planes, U.S. fighters will attack them. Planning is under way for a general air response and for an attack on any SAM site firing on U.S. planes. A decision on the appropriate response will await reports as to whether tomorrow’s reconnaissance missions encounter opposition and upon replies to messages sent to U Thant and Khrushchev.
7. There was a general discussion of how to handle the response to Khrushchev’s public letter to the President, including the question of missiles in Turkey.
- Reconnaissance missions; message to U Thant; U–2 overflying the USSR; letter from the President to Khrushchev; military planning. Top Secret. 2 pp. Kennedy Library, NSF, Meetings and Memoranda Series, Excom Meetings, Vol. I, Meetings 6–10.↩