19 December 1963 fifcdscf b M E M O R A N D U M FO R TH E R E C O R D S U B JE C T M eeting with the P resid en t on Cuba at 1100 on 19 D ecem ber 1963 Pc m 1 Included in the meeting w ere Acting Secretary of Stat B a ll Acting S ecretary of Defense G ilp atric Secretary Cyrus Vance S ecretary Douglas D illon A m b a ssa d o r Thompson G en eral W h eeler M r Donald W ilson M r M cG eo rge Bundy M r B ro m le y Smith M r Edwin M artin M r Ted Sorensen 3 4 b M r John C rim in s M r Gordon Chase M r G eorge ReadyL M r B ill M o y e rs G e n e ra l C a rte r M r Helm s 1 5 c 2 The P resid en t after full discussion postponed any sizable o p e r a t i o n s j j m m Q p r i m a r i l y to avoid any possible em barrassm en t to our OAS negotiations on the Venezuelan arm s cache We are authorized to continuo to put fo rw a rd proposals for operations and also to continue preparation s fo r a ir ops The m ain thrust was to greatly in c re a se p o litic al action with Canada B ritain Spain Italy and others in an e ffo rt to prom ote greater economic blockade 3 M r Bundy later stated that his an alysis of the meeting was that the P resid en t would continue to approve sm alle r 34 operations even though they would be relatively unrewarding if they would a s s is t in keeping up the m o ra lc H and otherw ise help in keeping the ball rollin g SANITIZED E O 12958 Sec 3 6 NLJ 9 3 - 3 2 s iNAJtA D ate M a rs h a ll S C a rte r Lieutenant G eneral USA Acting D irector 7- 3 3- 97 P R 2 S E 5 V A 7 t O a f i M 2 - y l i b r a r y Dictated by M r McCon w M cCone went on to say the r e a l issue to be considered at the meeting and by the P re s id e n t was a question of whether we wished to implement the policy as outlined in the 8th June paper and also le ss sp ecifically in the paper circu la ted in the meeting by M r Bundy or abandon the basic objective of brin gin g about the liquidation of the C a stro Communist entourage and the elim in ation of Comm unist presen ce in Cuba and thus re ly on future events of an undisclosed nature which might accom plish this objective S p e c ific a lly McCone said that he could envisage such issu es as extreme econom ic d is tre s s caused by sharp drop in sugar p ric e s or other external facto rs a ris in g which might cause C a stro gre at pain and ultimately his downfall In summing up his position M cCone stated that the actions fa v o ra b ly looked upon that is intelligence gathering propaganda economic denial wou have some but defin itely would not accom plish the stated objectives JAM 1 5 c 3 4 b 1 SANITIZED E O 12958 Sec 3 6 NLJ S3-383 By aU- NARA Date 9 - -' 7 COPY LSu' LIBRARY A Source LBJL John McCone Papers Box 1 Folder Meetings with President 11 23 1963-12 27 1963 This document is from the holdings of The National Security Archive Suite 701 Gelman Library The George Washington University 2130 H Street NW Washington D C 20037 Phone 202 994-7000 Fax 202 994-7005 nsarchiv@gwu edu