◆ SpookStack

95. (Continued) 26 October 1962 SUMMARY CONTENTS q. Surveillance of 25 October shows that the con- struction of IRBM and MRBM bases in Cuba is proceeding largely on schedule; now level photography confirms that the MRBM bases will use the 1,020-nauticai-mile SS-4 mis- sile, No additional sités, launchers or missiles have been located, but there is road construction around Re- medios which suggests the fourth IRBM site we have been expecting there, We estimate that it would cost the USSR more than twice as much and take considerably longer to add to its ICBM strike capability from the USSR as great an increment as the potential salvo from Cuban launching sites. It. Only two Soviet freighters--and five tankers, one of them already past the quarantine line~-still are headed for Cuba. The BELOVODSK, with twelve MI-4 heli-~ copters, is inthe North Atlantic; the PUGACHEV appears to have slowed or stopped several days west of the Panama Canal. <A total of 16 dry cargo ships now are carried as having turned back toward the USSR on 23 October. Two Soviet civil air flights are scheduled for Havana with passengers; cargo, if any, is not known. One may be turned back by Guinea today. A TU-114 is scheduled via Senegal to reach Havana 1 November. Itt. There are further indications that some Soviet and satellite elements, particularly air and ground ele- ments in Eastern Europe and European Russia , are on an alert or readiness sta f ji : have been placed on five-minute alert in East Germany, where two areas along the West Ger- man border have been closed off for exercises. Moscow highlights Khrushchev's acceptance of U Thant's appeal in a bid to start US-Soviet negotiations. Peiping, however, is irritated that the Soviet response to US action is not stronger. The Communists still deny there are any offensive weapons in Cuba. . Iv. There is no major change or Significant new devel- opment in non-bloc reaction to the crisis. Most’of the OAS nations have offered to participate in some form in the quarantine, and, NATO members have agreed with minor reser- vations to deny landing and overflight rights to Soviet planes bound for Cuba.