167. Record of Actions at the 478th Meeting of the National Security Council0
The President presided at this meeting. The Secretary of the Treasury and the Director, Bureau of the Budget, participated in the actions below. The Attorney General; the Acting Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff; the Director of Central Intelligence; the Director, U.S. Information Agency; the Under Secretary of State; the Deputy Secretary of Defense; the Secretary of the Army; the Secretary of the Navy; the Acting Secretary of the Air Force; the Deputy Under Secretary of State; the Counselor, Department of State; the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense; the Administrator, National Aeronautics and Space Administration; the Executive Secretary, National Aeronautics and Space Council; General Maxwell Taylor; General David Gray, U. S. Army; the Deputy Director (Plans), Central Intelligence Agency; the Special Counsel to the President; the Special Assistants to the President for National Security Affairs and for Science and Technology; Mr. Bromley Smith, National Security Council; and the Acting Executive Secretary, National Security Council, attended the meeting. The Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission, and the Adviser to the President on Disarmament participated in NSC Action No. 2408. The Deputy to the Adviser to the President on Disarmament and the Deputy Director, U. S. Disarmament Administration, attended the meeting for NSC Action No. 2408.
2406. U.S. Policy Toward Cuba
a. Noted the Presidentʼs view that there should be no further discussion outside the Government of the meaning of recent landings in Cuba, since the object now is to move forward.
b. Noted the Presidentʼs view that U.S. citizens in Cuba should be shortly advised again of the view of this Government that they should leave Cuba, and that at an appropriate time publicity should be given to this advice.
c. Noted the Presidentʼs view that U.S. assistance to active guerrillas in Cuba should, for the present, be extended only where there is a moral obligation, or to assist in survival or evacuation. Guerrillas with whom the United States may be in contact should be advised to lie low for the present. This directive should, however, be constantly reviewed in the light of the changing internal situation in Cuba.
[Page 316]d. Discussed the training of Cuban soldiers, and agreed that the question of possible forms of large-scale, open enlistment of Cuban soldiers should be studied by the Departments of State and Defense.1
Action Memo sent to State and Defense2
e. Discussed the support of refugees, and noted the Presidentʼs directive that levels of support should be reported to him with recommendations for their improvement, and his desire that such support should be open and overt. The President also directed that the adjustment of Cubans to life in the United States should be given particular attention by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
Action Memo sent to HEW and CIA
f. Noted that an interdepartmental study group would be considering an increase in U. S. assistance to Latin American countries in matters relating to internal security and counter-guerrilla activities, and agreed that a representative of the Department of Justice should be added to this group.
g. Noted the Presidentʼs desire that there be prompt recommendations with regard to trading with Cuba from the Departments of State and the Treasury.
h. Noted the Presidentʼs directive that the possibility be studied of creating a Caribbean Security Agency, to which we and the other Caribbean [Page 317] countries would contribute forces, and to whom any nation attacked could appeal for help.
Action Memo sent to State and Defense
i. Noted that the Attorney General and the Director of Central Intelligence would examine the possibility of stepping up coverage of Castro activities in the United States.
Action Memo sent to Justice and CIA
j. Noted that the Secretary of State had established an Operations Group in the Department under Ambassador Achilles, who would be responsible for all action with respect to the Cuban situation.
k. Noted the Presidentʼs request that he and the Vice President receive from the Department of State prompt information as to which governments have been helpful in various parts of the Cuban crisis, and which unhelpful.
Action Memo sent to State
l. Noted the Presidentʼs desire that a prompt and up-to-date report on Soviet assistance to Cuba be furnished by the Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency to the Director, U. S. Information Agency, and the Department of State.
Action Memo sent to Defense and CIA
- Source: Department of State, S/S-NSC (Miscellaneous) Files: Lot 66 D 95. Top Secret. A note on the record of action indicates that the President approved the record on April 24. The time of the meeting is taken from the Presidentʼs appointment book. (Kennedy Library)↩
- After the NSC meeting, Secretary of the Army Elvis J. Stahr sent to McNamara a copy of the discussion paper that he used during the meeting to elaborate on this proposal. Stahr proposed the creation of a “Freedom Brigade” in the U.S. Army composed of volunteers from among Cuban refugees in the United States. After basic training, the unit would be given Special Forces type training. The object would be to create a highly trained, flexible force that could be used for such purposes as guerrilla or unconventional operations in Cuba to spearhead a U.S. invasion of Cuba and to undertake occupation responsibilities in the post-combat phase of an invasion. The assumption was that if U.S. forces did intervene in Cuba, they should “get in and get out” quickly and leave occupation responsibilities to refugee groups such as a “Freedom Brigade,” which would underpin any government that the United States might recognize. (Memorandum from Stahr to McNamara, April 22; Washington National Records Center, RG 330, OASD (C) A Files: FRC 71 A 2896, Cuba 381 (Sensitive)) McNamara sent a memorandum to Nitze on April 22 in which he instructed ISA, on the basis of the actions taken at the NSC meeting, to: “Explore with the State Department the political and military implications of recruiting and training volunteer Cuban nationals as a part of the U. S. Army. The Cubans might be organized into a ʼFreedom Brigadeʼ or alternatively they could be integrated into existing units.” (Ibid., Nitze Cuba File)↩
- All of the action memoranda listed in this record were issued on April 25 to the agencies indicated as National Security Action Memoranda. The titles of the memoranda requiring action were as follows: NSAM No. 42 “Assistance to Cuban Refugees”, NSAM No. 43 “Training to Cuban Nationals”,NSAM No. 44 “Caribbean Security Agency”, NSAM No. 45 “Coverage of Castro Activities in the United States”, NSAM No. 46 “Attitude of Various Governments during the Cuban Crisis”, and NSAM No. 47 “Soviet Assist-ance to Cuba”. (Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Meetings and Memoranda Series)↩