383. Memorandum From the Presidentʼs Special Assistant (Schlesinger) to the
Presidentʼs Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bundy)0
Washington, August 22,
1962.
The attached paper sums up the evidence which suggests a striking change in
Soviet policy toward Cuba.
Until recently, it had been supposed that the USSR regarded Cuba as a poor field for investment, presumably
on the ground that it was too vulnerable to the U.S.
Raul Castro visited Moscow a few weeks
ago. No communique was issued, and our intelligence people concluded that
his mission had failed. It now appears that Raul succeeded and that the USSR may have decided to make a major investment in Cuba.
Any military construction will probably be defensive in function; a launching
pad directed against the U.S. would be too blatant a provocation. Probably
they want to listen in on Canaveral—or to shoot down a U-2.
Mr. McCone is going to take this up
with the President this afternoon.
Attachment
OCI No. 3047/62
Washington, August 22,
1962.
Current Intelligence Memorandum
SUBJECT
- Recent Soviet Military Aid to Cuba
- 1.
- Intelligence on recent Soviet military assistance to Cuba
indicates that an unusually large number of Soviet ships have
delivered military
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cargoes
to Cuba since late July and that some form of military construction
is underway at several locations in Cuba by Soviet bloc personnel
who arrived on some of these ships and are utilizing material
delivered by the vessels. During the period at least 1,500
passengers have debarked from four ships under security conditions
suggesting that their mission is related to the construction and
military activity; another 1,500 arrived during the period and were
greeted with considerable publicity as economic specialists and
students. Some still unconfirmed reports suggest that recently
arrived Soviet bloc personnel number as many as 5,000. The speed and
magnitude of this influx of bloc personnel and equipment into a
non-bloc country is unprecedented in Soviet military aid activities;
clearly something new and different is taking place. As yet limited
evidence suggests that present activities may include the
augmentation of Cubaʼs air defense system, possibly including the
establishment of surface-to-air missile sites or the setting up of
facilities for electronic and communications intelligence.
- 2.
- As many as 20 Soviet vessels may have already arrived in Cuba
since late July with military cargoes. Five more Soviet vessels have
left Black Sea ports under conditions suggesting that they are en
route to Cuba with additional military equipment. Most reports on
these shipments have referred to large quantities of transportation,
electronic, and construction equipment, such as communications and
radar vans, trucks of many varieties, mobile generator units,
tracked and wheeled prime movers, cranes, trailers, and fuel tanks.
Eyewitnesses who saw the material being transported from the port
areas report that much of the transportation was done at night and
even that town street lights were turned off as the convoys passed
through.
- 3.
- Personnel who arrived on the four Soviet passenger vessels—each of
which has a normal passenger capacity of 340, though one of them
declared 365 passengers when leaving the Black Sea—have been
described variously by Cubans who have seen them. Most agree that
they were obviously non-Cuban in appearance and were dressed in
civilian clothing. A number of independent sources report that the
foreign personnel were dressed in dirty, dusty, slept-in,
red-checkered shirts and faded blue trousers. The foreign personnel
unloaded the vessels themselves; usually Cuban militiamen have been
charged with this work even when it was a military cargo. There is
no hard evidence that any of these people are in combat military
units. There is strong evidence that their mission is related to
unidentified military construction.
- 4.
- At least a dozen refugees from the area of Matanzas have reported
independently on military construction at two sites near that north
coast city. Two and possibly more ships arrived in the port of
Matanzas and unloaded cargoes under tight security precautions.
Cargoes were taken to at least two general areas where construction
is
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underway. Initial
construction, according to one of the eyewitnesses, involved the
grading and leveling of a naturally level portion of the western
slope of a hill by Soviet personnel using heavy equipment. This was
taking place at a site just east of Matanzas at a place called El
Bongo. Other sources confirmed that material was leaving the docks
in the direction of El Bongo. Another source, who left Cuba more
recently, reported that by 4 August foreign personnel were
assembling what appeared to be a prefabricated curved-roofed
structure at El Bongo. The other site of construction activity near
Matanzas is apparently just across the provincial border in Havana
province at Santa Cruz del Norte, near the former Hershey sugar
mill. In this place, too, construction activity initially involved
the leveling of a portion of a hill near the coast. Cuban residents
had been cleared from the area.
- 5.
- There are as yet no confirmed reports of construction activity
underway in other parts of Cuba. However, there is considerable
reason to presume that such activity is underway or is to be
initiated shortly in a number of other locations in Cuba, ranging
from Oriente province in the east to Pinar del Rio in the west. A
refugee from the port of Antilla in Oriente province reported that a
Soviet ship unloaded in late July at nearby Nicaro. The material
unloaded, including electronic vans, tracked prime movers, and
trailers, was moved through Antilla toward the Peninsula de Ramon,
an area where he reported construction work had been underway for
some time. Another ship is reported to have discharged a similar
cargo as well as foreign personnel in the port of Casilda, in
southern Las Villas province. In northern Las Villas, Cayo Esquivel,
an island off the coast, has reportedly been evacuated. In the area
just south of Havana city, we have numerous independent reports that
a number of farms have been evacuated and that the boysʼ reformatory
at nearby Torrens has been converted for living quarters for numbers
of foreign personnel. Information from individuals who live near the
reformatory indicate that the numerous Soviet personnel who moved in
early this month wore “casual, dirty, civilian clothes.” Other
reports indicate that quantities of equipment such as has been
reported elsewhere have been seen on the confiscated farms near the
reformatory. Other reports from other parts of the island indicate
that Cuban families have been evacuated from an island near Mariel,
the port in Pinar del Rio province where much of the equipment was
unloaded, and from a farming area near Guatana, Pinar del Rio
province.
- 6.
- What the construction activity involves is not yet known. The
activity in the Matanzas area could be the initial phases of
construction of a SAM-equipped air
defense system, erection of electronic and communications
intelligence facilities aimed at Canaveral and other US
installations, or an ECM system
aimed at US space, missile, and/or other operational electronic
systems. The kinds of equipment described could
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fit with any of these objectives; the
evidence thus far, as well as Soviet practice in other countries
receiving bloc military assistance, would suggest, at least
tentatively, construction of an air defense system based on the
Guideline missile. Information to confirm or refute this should
become available within a week.
- 7.
- The step-up in military shipments and the construction activity
once again provide strong evidence of the magnitude of the USSRʼs support for the Castro regime. Together with the
extraordinary Soviet bloc economic commitments made to Cuba in
recent months, these developments amount to the most extensive
campaign to bolster a non-bloc country ever undertaken by the USSR.
