579. Memorandum from U. Alexis Johnson to McGeorge Bundy, December 171
SUBJECT
- Planning for Contingencies of Uprisings within Cuba
Although fragmentary and inconclusive, there have been a number of intelligence reports indicating the possibility of uprisings in Cuba. The following would appear to be among the possibilities in any one of which some of the elements involved in Cuba might request our military support:
1) A single point insurrection with anti-Castro elements seizing a town such as Santiago, or a mountain redoubt.
2) An outbreak of many small insurrectionary actions scattered over the island but with little or no liaison or coordination between anti-Castro elements (Measles).
3) A palace revolution by disaffected 26th of July elements against Castro elements in Havana and provincial capitals. (Hard-to-identify antagonists fighting at close quarters.)
4) An insurrectionary attack against the Soviet troops or a move by the Soviet troops to support hard-line communist elements in any one of the foregoing situations.
There may be other possibilities not included in the foregoing list. If we were suddenly confronted with such a situation, especially while substantial Soviet military strength remains in Cuba, it would, of course, present us with the necessity for expeditious and grave decisions. While all the possibilities cannot accurately be foreseen, subject to the views of the members of the EXCOM, it is suggested that State, Defense and CIA should undertake broad outlines of coordinated politico-military contingency planning against these possibilities, and that the intelligence community be requested to keep these and any other contingencies under especially close scrutiny.
- Planning for contingencies of uprisings within Cuba. Top Secret. 1 p. Kennedy Library, NSF, Countries Series, Cuba, General, Vol. VII (A), 12/62.↩