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CubanMissileCrisisCIA
Page 151
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48. (Continued)
When I returned to my office at 1730 I found a delegation of PI and military
intelligence analysts awaiting me. I do not know how long they had been
waiting to see me but it could not have been many minutes or they would have
passed a inessage to me at the Conference Room. They were all agreed that
they had just identified a missile base for missiles of a range upwards of
350 miles. I reviewed their evidence and was obliged to concur.
5. The DCI had gone to the west Coast and General Carter was then
at an informal reception for the Commonwealth conferees in the Executive
Dining Room at the Headquarters building in licLean. I was the host but
delayed my arrival until 1815 to study this intelligence. Upon arrival
I called General Carter aside and advised him in broad terms of the intelli-
gence. I said it would take several hours to wrap up a definitive report
with fully considered analysis. General Carter said he was going to dinner
with General Taylor and General Carroll (DIA) and would let them know. I
asked if he would notify “ir. ‘cGeorge Bundy for the White House and he said
he thought he might be at the dinner and would notify him there.
6. About 2130 that evening my intelligence officers checking out
the evidence on the site reported somewhat cryotically by phone that they
had agreed on a report identifying offensive missile systems probably in
‘the 700-mile and possibly in the 1,000-mile range. I instructed them to
complete a written report and stand by for action early the next morning.
7. <A few minutes later I decided it was a mistake to wait wtil
morning to alert the key officers at the White House and State Department,
Swethey ould insure early attention to the problem on the next day. i
assumed General Carter would nave alerted the Pentagon adequately via JCS
and DIA but that he might have missed the White House. Accordingly I
called Mr. McGeorge Bundy, found he had not seen General Carter, and
double-talked the information to him in broad terms. He was very clear
as to the import despite being short on facts due to the problem of security
over the phone. This was about 2200. I then called Roger Hilsman of the
State Department and conveyed the same information to him. I had more
difficulty indicating securely to him that I really meant MRBM's rather
than aircraft or other equipment we had anticipated, but the light finally
dawned and he (as he later informed me) called the Secretary of State to
pass on the word.
8. Early the next morning, 16 October, at about 0830, I talked
again on the phone to Mr. sundy. (I forget whether he called me or vice
versa) I had by then reviewed a brief memorandum on the subject and cal-
culated the ranges of possible missiles (by then we had settled on 700 to
1100 miles) and crudely indicated them on a map. At Mr. Bundy!s invitation
I went immediately to his office, having cleared this with General Carter,
who had another engagement and instructed me to follow through on the
White House formal notification. Sid Graybeal, my missiles expert from
OSI, accompanied me. In Bundy's office I told him the story. He shortly
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