Untitled Notes on the Back of the 24 May 1962 Memorandum from the General Staff to Khrushchev

24.5.62

The question of aid to Cuba was discussed by the Presidium of the CC [Central Committee] of the CPSU. N.S. Khrushchev presented a report. Statements were made by Kozlov, Brezhnev, Kosygin, Mikoyan, Voronov, Polyansky and all other members of the Presidium and [illegible] approval of the decision.

The Decision

1. The measures in Anadyr are approved entirely and unanimously. The document was approved subject to receiving agreement by F. Castro.

2. A commission is to be sent to [Castro, or Cuba; this copy of the text cut off] for negotiation. Comrade Biryuzov [Marshal Sergei Biryuzov, recently named commander in chief of the Strategic Missile Forces], Comrade Ivanov [Colonel General Semyon P. Ivanov, deputy chief of the General Staff and head of its Main Operations Directorate]

[illegible]

[Translator’s Note: R. Rashidov, head of the planned agricultural delegation chosen as cover, and A. Alekseyev, selected to be the new ambassador in Havana, were also named but are not indicated in the visible text available]

25.5.62 11:00 AM

1. N.S. Khrushchev [met with] Malinovsky, Gromyko, Andropov, Troyanovsky, Rashidov, Alekseyev [Translator’s Note: text partly missing on available copy, probably included Biryuzov and Ivanov, although by this time it had been decided Ivanov would remain in Moscow. Portion of text here was not readable.]

[signed:] S.P. Ivanov

[The sheet at this point bears a notation made after the original notes of the meeting on Many 24. It reads:] Executed in one copy, on seven pages, no draft.

Attested: Colonel General S.P. Ivanov [signature]

24.5.62

[A formal classification stamp by the Operations Directorate of the General Staff dated 26.5.62 gives the classification "Special Importance" and a record number 394-illegible]

[There then follows on the same page a third notation by General Ivanov entered on June 10:]

10.6.62 11:00 AM

Presidium of the CC CPSU meeting, with participation also of Gromyko, Malinovsky, [Zakharov], Yepishev, Biryuzov, and Chuikov [all deputy ministers of Defense].

Rashidov and Biryuzov reported [on their mission].

[Remainder of the notation, four lines of script, is truncated and illegible on the Volkogonov copy.]

[Translator’s Note: An account of this Presidium meeting, based on reading this same document in the General Staff archive, is provided by Aleksandr Fursenko, in Fursenko and Naftali, One Hell of a Gamble, pp. 187-89. He also summarizes a presentation to that meeting by Malinovsky reading from the basic May 24 Anadyr plan which, as earlier noted, was then signed by all Presidium members and Party Secretaries present.]