533. NSC Executive Committee record of action, November 161
1. Director McCone presented the intelligence summary.
2. Upon being informed that Castro’s letter to the UN Acting Secretary General had been released to the press, the President authorized the immediate release of a statement covering our continuing aerial surveillance of Cuba. The President asked that any reply to Castro’s letter be made by the OAS.
3. The members read a summary of the current status of the negotiations on the removal from Cuba of the IL–28 bombers.
4. There was a general discussion of both short-term and long-term arrangements required to ensure that offensive weapons are not reintroduced into Cuba. The State Department was asked to draft a verification plan for the long-term, including inspection of Cuba, other Caribbean countries, and possibly specified areas in the U.S.
[Typeset Page 1441]5. The President asked that a statement covering our policy toward invasion of Cuba be prepared promptly. A decision is to be made later as to whether the content of the statement can be given informally by McCloy to Kuznetsov on Sunday and whether the statement would be volunteered at Tuesday’s press conference.
6. The President authorized high-level aerial reconnaissance missions over Cuba for today and tomorrow. There are no low-level flights today and a decision was deferred as to whether low-level flights would be made tomorrow.
7. There was a discussion of our courses of action in the contingency that a surveillance plane is shot at or destroyed. A final decision on proposed courses of action was deferred.
- Aerial surveillance; status of UN negotiations; long-term verification; policy re invasion of Cuba; daily aerial reconnaissance; courses of action in event surveillance plane is shot at or destroyed. Top Secret. 1 p. Kennedy Library, NSF, Meetings and Memoranda Series, Executive Committee, Meetings, Vol. III, 25–32A.↩