609. Memorandum from McCone to General Taylor, February 11

[Facsimile Page 1]

I have read General Carroll’s recommendation of January 29th for low-level reconnaissance of Cuba and General LeMay’s letter of January 25th urging low-level reconnaissance and specifying certain targets.

I concur in the plan for the reason that I have repeatedly suggested low-level reconnaissance during recent months, both as a means of improving our intelligence gathering effort and for psychological reasons also. However, to date the COMOR Committee of the United States Intelligence Board has felt that U–2 photography was giving all desired information and that no unusual situation had been noted which would warrant a request to me, and from me to the President, for authority to conduct low-level missions. As recently as 23 January ’63, in response to my suggestion for low-level missions over Guerra, the COMOR Committee reported that low-level photography would reveal nothing not revealed in the U–2 photography then being conducted.

This morning I spent a considerable time reviewing recent photography with a member of the U.S. Senate and was convinced, as was he, that our U–2 photography was giving us a very comprehensive picture of what is going on in Cuba.

Therefore in supporting the recommendation of General Carroll, I am obliged to take exception to statements in General LeMay’s letter in which he states, “The literal fact is that we do not really know what is going on in Cuba”, for I do not feel this statement is correct; and I also take exception to General Carroll’s statement in which he says, “We find ourselves in somewhat the same position we were in in the latter part of September”, for by this statement General Carroll has indicated that our current program of U–2 [Facsimile Page 2] photography is non-productive in the sense we flew no flights in the latter part of September except two peripheral flights on the eastern end of the Island.

I therefore propose that the records show that low-level photography is desired to supplement a very comprehensive and informative high-level program which has been carried on now since mid-October.

John A. McCone
Director
  1. Low-level reconnaissance of Cuba. Secret. 2 pp. CIA, DCI (McCone) Files: Job 80–B01285A, DCI Memos for the Record, Box 2.