The Secret Sentry (56 page)

44. SC-08458-62, memorandum, Cline to Acting Director of Central Intelligence,
Recent Soviet
Military Activities in Cuba
, September 3, 1962, pp. 1–2, RG-263, entry 25, box 1, folder 11, NA, CP; Historical Division, Joint Chiefs of Staff,
Summary Study of Nine Worldwide Crises
, Tab 4: Cuban Missile Crisis, October–November 1962, September 25, 1973, p. 2, DoD FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 984-4,
Pentagon, Washington, DC.

45. Memorandum, Assistant Director, Research and Reports, to Deputy Director (Intelligence),
Further Analysis of Bloc and Western Shipping Calling at Cuban Ports
, September 11, 1962, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 0000307720, http://www.foia.cia.gov.

46. Thomas R. Johnson and David A. Hatch,
Synopsis of the Cuban Missile Crisis
(Fort Meade, MD: Center for Cryptologic History, May 1998), p. 1.

47. Johnson,
American Cryptology
, bk. 2, p. 332.

48. The
Omsk
arrived at the port of Casilda on September 8, 1962, and the
Poltava
arrived at the port of Mariel on September 15, 1962. The
Poltava
returned to Russia, and by mid-October 1962 it was on its way back to Cuba carry ing twenty-four R-14 intermediate range ballistic
mis-siles, but the U.S. blockade of Cuba was imposed. The ship and the missiles in its hold never reached Cuba. Zaloga, “Missiles
of October,” p. 316; General Anatoli I. Gribkov and General William Y. Smith,
Operation Anadyr: U.S. and Soviet Generals Recount the Cuban Missile Crisis
(Chicago: Edition Q, 1994), pp. 45–46; Dino A. Brugioni,
Eyeball to Eyeball: The Inside Story of
the Cuban Missile Crisis
(New York: Random House, 1990), p. 545.

49. Gribkov and Smith,
Operation Anadyr
, pp. 29, 34, 39.

50. SC No. 08172/62, memorandum, Guthe to INR/RSB,
Soviet Military Technicians Abroad
, September 20, 1962, pp. 1–2, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP70T00666R000100140020-8, NA, CP.

51. USAFSS History Office,
A Special Historical Study of the Production and Use of Special Intelligence
During World Contingencies: 1950–1970
, March 1, 1972, p. 52, declassified through FOIA by the National Security Archive, Washington, DC.

52. NSA, COMINT report, “
Cuban MIGs Scramble on Two U.S. Navy Patrol Planes
,” September 11, 1962, in
NSA and the Cuban Missile Crisis: Document Archive of Declassified Files from the Cuban
Missile Crisis
, http://www.nsa.gov/cuba.

53. Johnson and Hatch,
Synopsis
, pp. 4–5.

54. NSA, COMINT report, “New Radar Deployment in Cuba,” September 19, 1962, in
NSA and the
Cuban Missile Crisis: Document Archive of Declassified Files from the Cuban Missile Crisis
, http://www.nsa.gov/cuba.; Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps, Marine Corps Emergency Actions Center,
Summary of Items of Significant Interest for the Period 200701–210700 September 1962
, p. 3, National Security Archive, Washington, DC; Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, SC No. 08088/63-KH,
The 1962 Soviet Arms Build-Up in Cuba
, 1963, p. 81, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP78T05439A000300130013-4, NA, CP; Johnson,
American Cryptology
, bk. 2, p. 323.

55. Message, OUT76318, Director to [deleted], September 13, 1962, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 0000242399,
http://www.foia.cia.gov.

56. Message, OUT77481, Director to [deleted], September 17, 1962, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 0000242402,
http://www.foia.cia.gov.

57. NSA, COMINT report,
Further Information on Cargo Shipments to Cuba in Soviet Ships
, September 25, 1962, in
NSA and the Cuban Missile Crisis: Document Archive of Declassified Files from the
Cuban Missile Crisis
, http://www.nsa.gov/ cuba.

58. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, SC No. 08088/63-KH,
The 1962 Soviet Arms Build-Up
in Cuba
, 1963, p. 6, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP78T05439A000300130013-4, NA, CP. These intercepts are also referenced
in Defense Intelligence Agency,
Use of the Intelligence
Product
, undated but circa 1963, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP68B00 255-R000300010009-0, NA, CP.

59. John A. McCone,
Memorandum of Mongoose Meeting Held on Thursday, October 4, 1962
, October 4, 1962, p. 2, RG-263, entry 25, box 1, file 41, NA, CP; Thomas A. Parrott, memorandum for record,
Minutes of Meeting of the Special Group (Augmented) on Operation MONGOOSE, 4 October
1962
, October 4, 1962, pp. 2–3, National Security Archive, Washington, DC. Both documents were released in full in 1994 and 1997
respectively. In one of those laughable attempts at rewriting history, in 2004 the CIA released into its CREST database of
declassified documents new versions of the documents, which this time were heavily redacted. The excised content includes
all mentions of the National Reconnaissance Office, Vice President Lyndon Johnson’s participation in the meeting, and all
discussion of covertly mining Cuban harbors, for which see “4 October (Thursday),” CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP80B01676R001700180033-1,
NA, CP.

60. Director of Central Intelligence,
Report to the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board on Intelligence
Community Activities Relating to the Cuban Arms Build-Up: 14 April Through 14 October
1962
, December 1962, p. 35, National Security Files: Countries: Cuba, box 61, JFKL, Boston, MA.

61. NSA, COMINT report,
Intercept of Probable Cuban Air Defense Grid Tracking
, October 10, 1962, in
NSA and the Cuban Missile Crisis: Document Archive of Declassified Files from the Cuban Missile Crisis
, http:// www.nsa.gov/cuba.; Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, SC No. 08088/63-KH,
The 1962 Soviet Arms Build-Up in Cuba
, 1963, p. 81, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP78T05439A000300130013-4, NA, CP; Johnson,
American Cryptology
, bk. 2, p. 323.

62. CIA/ORR, SC 03387/64, DD/I staff study,
Cuba 1962: Khrushchev’s Miscalculated Risk
, February 13, 1964, p. 25, RG-263, entry 82, box 35, MORI DocID: 120333, NA, CP; Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps, Marine
Corps Emergency Actions Center,
Summary of Items of Significant Interest
for the Period 200701–210700 September 1962
, p. 3, National Security Archive, Washington, DC; Johnson and Hatch,
Synopsis
, pp. 4–5.

63. NSA, COMINT report,
Further Information on Cargo Shipments to Cuba in Soviet Ships
, October 11, 1962, in
NSA and the Cuban Missile Crisis: Document Archive of Declassified Files from the
Cuban Missile Crisis
, http://www.nsa.gov/ cuba.

64. CIA, memorandum,
Probable Soviet MRBM Sites in Cuba
, October 16, 1962, p. 1, RG-263, entry 25, box 1, folder 46, NA, CP; memorandum, Lundahl to Director of Central Intelligence,
Additional
Information—Mission 3101
, October 16, 1962, pp. 1–3, RG-263, entry 25, box 1, folder 50, NA, CP.

65. For details of how the San Cristóbal area was designated as a possible missile-launching site to be investigated by a
U-2 overflight, see excerpt from memorandum, Lehman to Director of Central Intelligence,
CIA Handling of the Soviet Buildup in Cuba, 1 July–16 October 1962
, November 14, 1962, pp. 23–26, RG-263, entry 25, box 1, folder 36, NA, CP. In another of those sadly too frequent instances
of the CIA declassification personnel reclassifying previously declassified material in the post-9/11 era, in 2004 the CIA
released to the CREST database at the National Archives another version of this document, which this time was heavily redacted,
for which see CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP80B01676R001700180076-4, NA, CP.

66. Memorandum for the record,
MONGOOSE Meeting with the Attorney General
, October 16, 1962, National Security Archive, Washington, DC.

67. Confidential interview.

68. NSA OH-1982-20, oral history,
Interview with Harold L. Parish
, October 12, 1982, p. 3, declassified and on file at the library of the National Cryptologic Museum, Fort Meade, MD; NSA
OH-1983-17, oral history,
Interview with Paul Odonovich
, August 5, 1983, pp. 123–127, declassified and on file at the library of the National Cryptologic Museum, Fort Meade, MD;
Johnson,
American
Cryptology
, bk. 2, pp. 326–27.

69. Johnson,
American Cryptology
, bk. 2, p. 327.

70. Guided Missile and Astronautics Intelligence Committee,
Joint Evaluation of Soviet Missile
Threat in Cuba
,
2100 Hours
, October 18, 1962, p. 1, RG-263, entry 25, box 1, folder 61, NA, CP; Guided Missile and Astronautics Intelligence Committee,
Joint Evaluation of Soviet Missile
Threat in Cuba
,
2000 Hours
, October 19, 1962, p. 2, RG-263, entry 25, box 1, folder 65, NA, CP; Johnson,
American Cryptology
, bk. 2, p. 325.

71. CIA, National Indications Center,
The Soviet Bloc Armed Forces and the Cuban Crisis: A Chronology:
July–November 1962
, June 18, 1963, p. 40, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 0001161985, http:// www.foia.cia.gov; Timothy Naftali
and Philip Zelikow, eds.,
The Presidential
Recordings: John F. Kennedy
, vol. 2 (New York: W. W. Norton, 2001), pp. 520, 582.

72. NSA OH-1983-17, oral history,
Interview with Paul Odonovich
, August 5, 1983, pp. 127–28, declassified and on file at the library of the National Cryptologic Museum, Fort Meade, MD;
Johnson and Hatch,
Synopsis
p. 9.

73. Johnson,
American Cryptology
, bk. 2, p. 329.

74. Two weeks later, on November 4, the NSA cryptanalysts discovered that the same messages that were being passed on both
teletype links were also being transmitted simultaneously by the Russian navy’s very low frequency (VLF) radio broadcast facility
at Kudma, outside the city of Gorki. NSA concluded that neither of the radio links was providing communications support for
the Soviet missile units in Cuba, suggesting that either the Kudma VLF radio transmission station or the Soviet Strategic
Rocket Forces’ primary high frequency radio transmitter facility at Perkushkovo, outside Moscow, was performing this function.
Headquarters United States Air Force, Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence,
Revisions and Additions to S-25-62,
Aerospace Forces Based in Cuba
, supplement to annex 1, sec. 1, November 1, 1962, p. 32a, National Security Archive, Washington, DC; Arms Control and Disarmament
Agency, SC No. 08088/63-KH,
The 1962 Soviet Arms Build-Up in Cuba
, 1963, pp. 78–79, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP78T05439A000300130013-4, NA, CP; NPIC/R-1047/63, photographic interpretation
report,
Soviet Communications Facilities in Cuba
, January 1963, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP78B04560A001000010081-8, NA, CP.

75. Johnson,
American Cryptology
, bk. 2, p. 329.

76. National Indications Center,
The Soviet Bloc Armed Forces and the Cuban Crisis: A Chronology:
July–November 1962
, June 18, 1963, p. 48, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 0001161985, http://www.foia.cia.gov.

77. CIA, DD/I staff study,
The Soviet Missile Base Venture in Cuba
, February 17, 1964, p. 90, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Caesar-Polo-Esau Papers, http://www.foia.cia.gov/cpe.asp.

78. Johnson,
American Cryptology
, bk. 2, p. 329; message, 230750Z, USN-22 to DIST NOVEMBER WHISKEY/ALPHA, SIGINT Readiness Bravo, Owen, Spot Report No. 4,
October 23, 1962; message, 230910Z, USN-22 to NOVEMBER WHISKEY/ALPHA, SIGINT Readiness Bravo, Owen, Spot Report No. 5, October
23, 1962, both in
NSA and the Cuban Missile Crisis: Document
Archive of Declassified Files from the Cuban Missile Crisis
, http://www.nsa.gov/ cuba. See also Philip Zelikow and Ernest May, eds.,
The Presidential Recordings: John F. Kennedy
, vol. 3 (New York: W. W. Norton, 2001), p. 184.

79. CIA, memorandum,
The Crisis: USSR/Cuba
, October 24, 1962, p. i, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 0000725840, http://www.foia.cia.gov; memorandum for
the director,
Your Briefings of the NSC Executive Committee
, November 3, 1962, p. 1, RG-263, entry 25, box 2, folder 109, NA, CP; National Indications Center,
The Soviet Bloc Armed Forces and the
Cuban Crisis: A Chronology: July–November 1962
, June 18, 1963, p. 52, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 0001161985, http://www.foia.cia.gov; National Indications
Center,
The Soviet Bloc Armed Forces and the Cuban Crisis: A Discussion of Readiness Measures
, July 15, 1963, p. 14, RG-263, entry 82, box 28, MORI DocID: 107300, NA, CP; Zelikow and May,
Presidential Recordings
, vol. 3, p. 184.

80. The eight ships that SIGINT indicated had reversed course were the freighters
Yuri Gagarin
,
Klimovsk
,
Poltava
,
Dolmatova
,
Metallurg Kurako
,
Urgench
,
Fizik Vavilov
, and
Krasnograd
. CIA, memorandum,
The Crisis: USSR/Cuba
, October 25, 1962, p. II-1, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 0000725841, http://www.foia.cia.gov; CIA,
Background Material for 24 October
, sec. 3, Soviet Shipping to Cuba, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP 80B01 676-R001800010015-8, NA, CP; CIA, DD/I staff
study,
The Soviet Missile Base Venture in Cuba
, February 17, 1964, p. 89, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Caesar-Polo-Esau Papers, http://www.foia.cia.gov/cpe.asp.

81. Robert F. Kennedy,
Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis
(New York: W. W. Norton, 1969), p. 60.

82. Johnson,
American Cryptology
, bk. 2, p. 329.

83. Zelikow and May,
Presidential Recordings
, vol. 3, p. 184.