From the Preface The collection in this volume includes many of CIA’s most important documents on the Cuban missile crisis. It contains the “honeymoon cables” that Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) John A. McCone sent to headquarters from France a month before the missile crisis, as well as McCone’s notes taken during the National Security Council Executive Committee meetings at the height of the crisis. It also includes intelligence memorandums and estimates, briefing papers, Cuban refugee reports, and memorandums on Operation MONGOOSE, the clandestine program aimed at destabilizing the Castro regime. Many of the evaluations of the missile threat contained here draw upon IRONBARK material, whose source was Soviet Col. Oleg Penkovsky. . . . It should be noted that these documents, many of them written hastily during a time of national emergency, contain occasional errors. McCone’s 19 October 1962 memorandum for the file (Document 63), for example, confuses the days of the week, although not the dates, of the first crisis meetings that he attended. Much has been written on the missile crisis during the 30 years that have elapsed since those 13 days in October, but the unavailability of classified material has left many questions still unanswered. The CIA History Staff hopes that the publication of this volume, and the further releases that follow will make possible a more complete understanding of this complex and deeply troubling event. Keywords: CIA, Cuban Missile Crisis 1962, Castro,DCI, John A. Mc Cone, Ironbark, Mongoose, Col. Oleg Penkovsky, CIA, National Security Council,

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