December 31, 1998
Release of Microfiche Supplement to 1961-1963
Foreign Relations Volumes on
Cuba and the American Republics
The publication is organized in three parts, altogether comprising 744 documents. The first part covers the formulation of U.S. policy and the course of U.S. relations with Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, and Venezuela. Documents on these countries were omitted from the print volume Foreign Relations, 1961-1963, Volume XII, because of limitations of space. For these 11 countries, 321 documents have been selected for reproduction in the microfiche. Coverage for each country averages approximately 20 documents. Combining the print volumes for Central America, the Caribbean, and South America, as well as this microfiche supplement, Foreign Relations presents documentation on 19 Latin American countries as well as three regional compilations.
The next two parts of the microfiche publication reproduce additional documentation on Cuba, much of it specifically cited in footnotes and editorial notes in the two volumes covering the Kennedy administration’s policy toward Cuba. Some of the documents on Cuba presented in this publication have been recently declassified and released and have not had wide dissemination. Of particular importance are 87 documents supplementing Volume X on the planning for the Bay of Pigs invasion, briefings by the organizers of the operation of newly-appointed Kennedy administration officials, notes of Special Group meetings prior to the ill-fated invasion in April 1961, additional materials on the Operation Mongoose that began after the fiasco at the Bay of Pigs, and the Central Intelligence Agency’s recently-released formal appraisal of the Bay of Pigs operation by its Inspector General in late 1961 and the response to the latter by CIA’s Deputy Director for Plans Richard Bissell. Most of these documents are from either Central Intelligence Agency files or the historical files of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research of the Department of State.
The second largest segment of the microfiche supplement--225 documents--provides additional documentation for the second Cuba volume on the missile crisis and its aftermath. Included in this segment are intelligence documentation on the missiles and other offensive Soviet-supplied weapons in Cuba, planning papers prepared during the crisis itself, notes of meetings between the Joint Chiefs and President Kennedy during and after the crisis, and diplomatic correspondence and communications with U.S. allies. Although the Cuban missile crisis is generally considered to have ended in late October 1962, this microfiche supplement presents substantial documentation on the subsequent dangerous U.S.-Soviet confrontation over the removal of IL-28 Soviet bombers and the unsuccessful negotiations between Washington and Moscow on the verification of the removal of all offensive weapons from Cuba and the corresponding U.S. non-invasion pledge. Finally, there is substantial documentation for the year 1963 both on the aftereffects of the crisis and new developments in the U.S.-Cuban relationship. Although the sources for the documents supporting Volume XI are drawn from a wide range of collections, CIA files are a major source for this segment as well.
The Office of the Historian has prepared a printed guide to the microfiche supplement which comes with the purchase of the collection. It includes a descriptive list of all documents, lists of sources, names, and abbreviations, and summaries of the printed Foreign Relations, 1961-1963, volumes X, XI, and XII. For further information, contact David S. Patterson, General Editor of the Foreign Relations series, at (202) 663-1127 (fax: (202) 663-1289, e-mail: pahistoff@panet.us-state.gov). Copies of the microfiche publication may be purchased from the Government Printing Office.