Office of the Historian

2. Memorandum From Acting Secretary of State Ball to President Kennedy0

Washington, October 2, 1962.

SUBJECT

  • Policy Toward Non-Bloc Ships in Cuban Trade

A. Recommended Action

1.
The President should make a public statement dealing with this topic.
2.
The President should close all U.S. ports to all ships of any country if any ship under the flag of that country hereafter carries arms to Cuba.
3.
The President should direct that no government cargo shall be carried on a foreign flag ship if any ship of the same owners is used hereafter in Bloc-Cuba Trade.
4.
The President should direct that no United States flag ship and no United States owned ship shall carry goods to or from Cuba.
5.

Alternative I

The President should close all United States ports to any ship on a continuous voyage to or from Cuba.

Alternative II

The President should close all United States ports to any ship that on the same continuous voyage carried or carries to Cuba items on the COCOM list.

Alternative III

The President should close all United States ports to any ship that on the same continuous voyage carried or carries to Cuba items on the positive list under Regulation T-1.

Alternative IV

The President should close all United States ports to any ship that on the same continuous voyage was used or is being used in Bloc-Cuba trade.

6.
The President should instruct the Secretary of State to explore every avenue to obtain cooperation from other countries in restricting the use of their ships in Bloc-Cuba trade.

B. Legal Authority

The President has all the necessary legal authority to carry out the above recommendations without new legislation. A small supplemental appropriation for the Department of Agriculture might have to be included in the budget to pay for shipping in U.S. bottoms.

C. Action Not Recommended

The President has adequate legal powers to adopt more restrictive policies than those recommended above. There has been some talk, for example, of closing U.S. ports to the ships of any country which permits its ships to go to Cuba. Others have mentioned the possibility of closing territorial waters of the U.S. to such ships, or denying them use of the Panama Canal.

These proposals are not recommended.1

  1. Source: Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Meetings and Memoranda Series, NSAM 194. Confidential. No drafting information appears on the source text.↩
  2. Printed from an unsigned copy.↩