The Secret Sentry

by Matthew M. Aid

  10. Memorandum, Lansdale to O’Donnell, Possible Courses of Action in Vietnam, September 13, 1960, in U.S. Department of Defense Pentagon Papers, U.S. House of Representatives ed., 1971, pp. 1307– 09; Memorandum of Conference with President Kennedy, February 23, 1961, National Security Files, Chester V. Clifton Series, Conferences with the President, vol. I, JFKL, Boston, MA; Annual Historical Report, 3rd Radio Research Unit, Fiscal Year 1961, vol. 2, p. 8, INSCOM FOIA; Gerhard, In the Shadow, p. 29; 509th Radio Research Group, When the Tiger Stalks No More: The Vietnamiza-tion of SIGINT: May 1961–June 1970, 1970, pp. 5, 7, INSCOM FOIA.

  11. Gerhard, In the Shadow, pp. 30–31; 509th Radio Research Group, When the Tiger Stalks No More: The Vietnamization of SIGINT: May 1961–June 1970, 1970, pp. 6, 11, INSCOM FOIA; Johnson, American Cryptology, bk. 2, p. 502; The Pentagon Papers, Senator Gravel ed., vol. 2 (Boston: Beacon Press, 1975), pp. 641–42; John D. Bergen, Military Communications: A Test for Technology (Washington, DC: U.S. Army Center of Military History, 1986), p. 388.

  12. HQ Third Radio Research Unit, Annual Historical Report, 3rd Radio Research Unit, Fiscal Year 1961, vol. 1, pp. 1–2, and vol. 2, p. 2, INSCOM FOIA; Annual Historical Report, 3rd Radio Research Unit, Fiscal Year 1962, vol. 1, pp. 1–2, INSCOM FOIA; Annual Historical Report, 3rd Radio Research Unit, Fiscal Year 1963, vol. 3, tab 28, INSCOM FOIA; Donald B. Oliver, “Deployment of the First ASA Unit to Vietnam,” Cryptologic Spectrum, vol. 10, nos. 3–4 (Fall/Winter 1991), NSA FOIA; Johnson, American Cryptology, bk. 2, p. 503. The stamp in the medical records is from Gilbert, Most Secret War, p. 7.

  13. Gilbert, Most Secret War, p. 8.

  14. Report on General Taylor’s Mission to South Vietnam, November 3, 1961, sec. 7, Intelligence, p. 3, National Security File, Country File: Vietnam, Report on Taylor Mission—November 1961, box 210, JFKL, Boston, MA; extract from memorandum #273, no subject, November 26, 1961, p. 9, Record #195503, Item #3671510005, George J. Veith Collection, Vietnam Archive, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX; Pentagon Papers, Gravel ed., vol. 2, pp. 439, 656–57.

  15. Memorandum, Helms to Director of Central Intelligence, Meeting with the Attorney General of the United States Concerning Cuba, January 19, 1962, National Security Archive, Washington, DC; memorandum, Lansdale to Special Group (Augmented), Review of Operation Mongoose, July 25, 1962, National Security Archive, Washington, DC; 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. 4, National Security Files: Countries: Cuba, box 61, JFKL, Boston, MA. For an excellent overall description and collec-tion of declassified documents relating to Operation Mongoose, see Lawrence Chang and Peter Kornbluh, eds., The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962: A National Security Archive Documents Reader (New York: New Press, 1992).

  16. JCSM-272-62, memorandum, Lemnitzer to Secretary of Defense, April 10, 1962, p. 1, National Security Archive, Washington, DC.

  17. Memorandum, Lansdale to Distribution List, Program Review by the Chief of Operations, Operation Mongoose, January 18, 1962, RG-59, Central Decimal File, 737.00/1-2062, NA, CP; memorandum, Helms to Director of Central Intelligence, Meeting with the Attorney General of the United States Concerning Cuba, January 19, 1962, National Security Archive, Washington, DC; memorandum, Tidwell to Deputy Director (Intelligence) and Deputy Director (Plans), Intelligence Support on Cuba, March 6, 1962, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 0001161975, http://www.foia.cia.gov; memorandum for the record, Brig. Gen. Lansdale, Meeting with President, 16 March 1962, March 16, 1962, National Security Archive, Washington, DC; 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, pp. 4–5, National Security Files: Countries: Cuba, box 61, JFKL, Boston, MA; Johnson, American Cryptology, bk. 2, pp. 320, 322.

  18. Moody’s background from memorandum, John D. Roth, U.S. Civil Ser vice Commission to Department and Agency Incentive Awards Officers, 1971 Federal Woman’s Award, February 2, 1971, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP84-00313R000100250007-7, NA, CP; NSA Newsletter, March 1971, pp. 4–5; NSA Newsletter, April 1972, p. 5; NSA Newsletter, May–June 1974, p. 7; NSA Newsletter, January 1976, p. 10; NSA Newsletter, February 1977, p. 4, all NSA FOIA. For Moody taking command of NSA’s Cuban operations in July 1961, see Johnson, bk. 2, American Cryptology, p. 322.

  19. Memorandum, Tidwell to Deputy Director (Intelligence) and Deputy Director (Plans), Intelligence Support on Cuba, March 6, 1962, p. 2, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 0001161975, http:// www.foia.cia.gov; Draft: vol. 4, chap. 2: The Cuban Missile Crisis, JFK Assassination Records, CIA Miscellaneous Files, box 7, Document No. 104-10302-10026, NA, CP; 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. 8, National Security Files: Countries: Cuba, box 61, JFKL, Boston, MA.

  20. Memorandum, Lansdale to Distribution List, Program Review by the Chief of Operations, Operation Mongoose, January 18, 1962, RG-59, Central Decimal File, 737.00/1-2062, NA, CP.

  21. ASA, Annual Historical Summary, U.S. Army Security Agency: Fiscal Year 1962, p. 3, INSCOM FOIA.

  22. Dr. Thomas R. Johnson, American Cryptology During the Cold War, 1945–1989, bk. 3, Retrenchment and Reform, 1972–1980 (Fort Meade: Center for Cryptologic History, 1995), p. 84, NSA FOIA; U.S. Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations, Final Report of the Select Committee to Study Government Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, Supplementary Detailed Staff Reports on Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans, bk. 2, 94th Congress, 2nd session 1976, pp. 744–45, 773; U.S. House of Representatives, Government Operations Committee, Interception of Nonverbal Communications by Federal Intelligence Agencies, 94th Congress, 1st and 2nd sessions, 1976, pp. 104, 110–11.

  23. Memorandum, Lansdale to Special Group (Augmented), Progress OPERATION MONGOOSE, July 11, 1962, pp. 3–4, Church Committee Files, RG-233, NA, CP; 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, pp. 16, 33, National Security Files: Countries: Cuba, box 61, JFKL, Boston, MA; SC No. 12160/62-KH, untitled CIA report on the agency’s intelligence collection effort against Cuba, December 1962, p. 4, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP66B00560R000100100176-0, NA, CP; Chang and Kornbluh, Cuban Missile Crisis, p. 42. Details of the USS Oxford’s background and mission from Julie Alger, A Review of the Technical Research Ship Program: 1961–1969, undated, pp. 7, 16, 88, NSA FOIA; USS Oxford (AG-159) Technical Research Ship History, undated, p. 1, Ships Histories Division, Naval Historical Center, Washington, DC. For Castro’s negative reaction to the presence of the USS Oxford off Cuba, see “Castro Says a U.S. Ship Violated Cuban Waters,” Associated Press, February 23, 1962. A copy of this AP dispatch, carried in the February 23, 1962, edition of the Buffalo Eve ning News, can be found at http://members.tripod.com/~USS _OXFORD/seastories.html.

  24. 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. 19, National Security Files: Countries: Cuba, box 61, JFKL, Boston, MA.

  25. 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, pp. 44–48, 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. 1, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP78T05439A000300130013-4, NA, CP; CIA, SC 03387/64, DD/I staff study, Cuba 1962: Khrushchev’s Miscalculated R
isk, February 13, 1964, pp. 24–25, RG-263, entry 82, box 35, MORI DocID: 120333, NA, CP; Johnson, American Cryptology, bk. 2, p. 323.

  26. Memorandum, Lansdale to Special Group (Augmented), Operation Mongoose Progress, July 11, 1962, pp. 3–4, JFK Assassination Rec ords, HSCA (RG-233), NA, CP; memorandum, OP-922Y to Secretary of the Navy, Navy Participation in Increased SIGINT Program for Cuba, July 19, 1962, in NSA and the Cuban Missile Crisis: Document Archive of Declassified Files from the Cuban Missile Crisis, http://www.nsa.gov/ cuba.

  27. CIA, Office of Research and Reports, CIA/RR EP 60-73-S4, Electronics Facilities in Cuba, November 1960, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP79T01049A002100090001-8, NA, CP; CIA, Office of Research and Reports, CIA/RR CB 62-65, Current Support Brief: Possible Use of Military Microwave Network in Cuba for Command-Control Purposes, November 2, 1962, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP79T01003A001300200001-4, NA, CP; Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, SC No. 08088/63-KH, The 1962 Soviet Arms Build-Up in Cuba, 1963, p. 78, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP78T05439A000300130013-4, NA, CP; CIA/ORR, SC 03387/64, DD/I staff study, Cuba 1962: Khrushchev’s Miscalculated Risk, February 13, 1964, map following p. 24, RG-263, entry 82, box 35, MORI DocID: 120333, NA, CP; CIA, Office of Research and Reports, CIA/RR CB 65-8, Intelligence Brief: Cuba Plans New Nationwide High-Capacity Microwave System, January 1965, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, http://www.foia.cia.gov.

  28. Thomas N. Thompson, USAFSS Per formance During the Cuban Crisis, vol. 1, Airborne Operations, April–December 1962 (San Antonio, TX: USAFSS Historians Office, no date), pp. 4–6, AIA FOIA; Victor Marchetti and John D. Marks, The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence (New York: Laurel, 1980), p. 262.

  29. Message, 191653Z, DIRNSA to CNO, July 19, 1962, and memorandum, OP-922Y to Secretary of the Navy, Navy Participation in Increased SIGINT Program for Cuba, July 19, 1962, both in NSA and the Cuban Missile Crisis: Document Archive of Declassified Files from the Cuban Missile Crisis, http://www.nsa.gov/cuba; memorandum, Harris to Chief of Operations, Operation Mongoose, End of Phase I, July 23, 1962, p. 5, JFK Assassination Rec ords, JFK Library Files, box 23, file Special Group (Augmented) Meetings, Record No. 176-10011-10063, NA, CP.

  30. The USS Oxford’s operations area (OPAREA) was very small, consisting of a one-hundred-mile-long “racecourse track” along the northern coast of Cuba between 82 degrees west longitude and 83 degrees west longitude and running roughly along latitude 23.11 degrees north to 23.20 degrees north. The OPAREA was subdivided into five zones, numbered one through five, each twenty miles in length, that ran from just east of Havana to just west of the port of Mariel. Message, 191653Z DIRNSA to CNO, July 19, 1962, and memorandum, OP-922Y to Secretary of the Navy, Navy Participation in Increased SIGINT Program for Cuba, July 19, 1962, both in NSA and the Cuban Missile Crisis: Document Archive of Declassified Files from the Cuban Missile Crisis, http:// www.nsa.gov/ cuba; Ship’s History: USS Oxford (AG-159) for CY 1962, January 25, 1963, Ships Histories Division, Naval Historical Center, Washington, DC; Deck Log: USS Oxford (AG-159), entries for period July 16, 1962, through July 31, 1962, Ships Histories Division, Naval Historical Center, Washington, DC; Thomas N. Thompson, USAFSS Performance During the Cuban Crisis, vol. 2, Ground Based Operations, October–December 1962 (San Antonio, TX: USAFSS Historians Office, no date), p. 38, AIA FOIA. For monitoring the Cuban microwave radio-relay system, see Bill Baer, “USNS Joseph E. Muller, TAG-171,” undated, http://www.asa.npoint.net/baer01.htm.

  31. USS Oxford Deck Log, entry for July 31, 1962, Ships Histories Division, Naval Historical Center, Washington, DC. For the Cuban perception of the Oxford’s mission off Havana, see Fabián Es-calante, The Secret War: CIA Covert Operations Against Cuba: 1959–62 (Melbourne: Ocean Press, 1995), pp. 138, 185.

  32. Johnson, American Cryptology, bk. 2, p. 341; “Lieutenant General Gordon A. Blake, USAF, Is Appointed Director, NSA,” NSA Newsletter, August 1, 1962, p. 2; “Lt. General Gordon A. Blake to Retire on May 31,” NSA Newsletter, May 1965, p. 5; “In Memoriam: Lt. Gen. Gordon A. Blake, Former Director,” NSA Newsletter, November 1997, p. 2, all NSA FOIA.

  33. NSA OH-1984-7, oral history, Interview with Lt. General Gordon A. Blake, April 19, 1984, p. 49, NSA FOIA.

  34. Johnson, American Cryptology, bk. 2, p. 341; memorandum for the record, Luncheon Meeting with Assistant Secretary of Defense John H. Rubel, April 9, 1963, p. 2, RG-263, CIA Reference Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP80B01676R003000020015-3, NA, CP; NSA OH-1984-7, oral history, Interview with Lt. General Gordon A. Blake, April 19, 1984, p. 98–99, NSA FOIA; “Lt. General Gordon A. Blake to Retire on May 31,” NSA Newsletter, May 1965, p. 5, NSA FOIA.

  35. SC No. 11649/62, memorandum, [deleted] to [deleted] (O/IG), Ballistic Missile Shipments to Cuba, November 16, 1962, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP70T00666R000100140006-4, NA, CP; SC No. 11655/62, memorandum, [deleted] to Inspector General, Total Cargo Tonnage Moved to Cuba by Soviet Ships, 26 July–30 September, November 16, 1962, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP70T00666R000100140007-3, NA, CP; SC No. 11664/62, memorandum, [deleted] to [deleted] (O/IG), DIA and NSA Reporting on the Cuban Arms Build-Up, November 16, 1962, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP70T00666R000100140005-5, NA, CP. Quote from 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. 40, National Security Files: Countries: Cuba, box 61, JFKL, Boston, MA.

  36. National Indications Center, The Soviet Bloc Armed Forces and the Cuban Crisis: A Chronology: July– November 1962, June 18, 1963, p. 1, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 0001161985, http://www.foia.cia.gov; Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, SC No. 08088/63-KH, The 1962 Soviet Arms Build-Up in Cuba, 1963, p. 8, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP78T05439A000300130013-4, NA, CP.

  37. For SIGINT reporting on the surge in Soviet shipping traffic to Cuba, see the following NSA reports: message, “Unusual Number of Soviet Passenger Ships en Route to Cuba,” July 24, 1962; message, “Possible Reflections of Soviet/Cuban Trade Adjustments Noted in Merchant Shipping,” July 31, 1962; message, “Further Unusual Soviet/Cuban Trade Relations Recently Noted,” August 7, 1962; message, “Status of Soviet Merchant Shipping to Cuba,” August 23, 1962; message, “Further Information on Soviet/Cuban Trade,” August 31, 1962, all in NSA and the Cuban Missile Crisis: Document Archive of Declassified Files from the Cuban Missile Crisis, http://www.nsa.gov/cuba. For CIA analysis of the SIGINT reporting on Soviet shipping to Cuba, see 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; appendix 1, enclosure to OP-922N memo to SECDEF Ser SSO/00323 of 26 Oct 1962, in Chief of Naval Operations, The Naval Quarantine of Cuba, 1962, Post ’46 Command File, box 10, Operational Archives, Naval Historical Center, Washington, DC; National Indications Center, The Soviet Bloc Armed Forces and the Cuban Crisis: A Discussion of Readiness Measures, July 15, 1963, p. 4, RG-263, entry 82, box 28, MORI DocID: 107300, NA, CP.

  38. Steven Zaloga, “The Missiles of October: Soviet Ballistic Missile Forces During the Cuban Missile Crisis,” Journal of Soviet Military Studies, vol. 3, no. 2 (June 1990): p. 315.

  39. SC No. 11664/62, memorandum, [deleted] to [deleted] (O/IG), DIA and NSA Reporting on the Cuban Arms Build-Up, November 16, 1962, p. 1, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP70T00666R000100140005-5, NA, CP; CIA, Inspector General, Inspector General’s Survey of Handling of Intelligence Information During the Cuban Arms Build-Up, November 20, 1962, pp. 8– 9, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP80B01676R001800060005-4, NA, CP.

  40. John A. McCone, Memorandum on Cuba, August 20, 1962, p. 1, RG-263, entry 25, box 1, folder 5, NA, CP.

  41. Memorandum for the file, Discussion in Secretary Rusk’s Office at 12 o’Clock, 21 August 1962, August 21, 1962, RG-263, entry 25, box
1, NA, CP; Memorandum of the Meeting with the President, August 22, 1962, RG-263, entry 25, box 1, NA, CP; memorandum, Soviet MRBMs in Cuba, October 31, 1962, p. 1, RG-263, entry 25, box 1, NA, CP.

  42. NSA, COMINT report, Status of Soviet Merchant Shipping to Cuba, August 23, 1962, in NSA and the Cuban Missile Crisis: Document Archive of Declassified Files from the Cuban Missile Crisis, http://www.nsa.gov/cuba. See also CIA, TDCS-3/520,583, information report, Arrival of Soviet Ships and Prefabricated Concrete Forms, August 23, 1962, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 0001264810, http:// www.foia.cia.gov.

  43. CIA, TDCS-3/651,139, information report, Arrival of Men and Equipment at the Ports of Trinidad and Casilda, August 24, 1962, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 0001264817, http://www.foia.cia.gov.

  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.