The role of the Executive Committee of the United States National Security Council in resolving the Cuban missile crisis

Role ofthe “Cuban Crisis group” in the Cuban conflict settlement is examined in the article, which is based on the materials of the declassified tapes of the meetings of the Executive Committee of the United States National Security Council (October 16-29, 1962). Although the Cuban crisis itself is rather well explored in domestic historiography, the so-called Kennedy tapes have not been the subject of special analysis. Great attention is paid to the deliberations of EXCOMM, throughout October 19-20, on considering the options to get out of the conflict - by the military operation, including air attack and island invasion, or by naval blockade of Cuba. Executive committee members could be divided, with some degree of conventionality, into “war hawks” - for example, Director of Central Intelligence J. McCone, General M. Taylor, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and “doves”, first of all, Secretary of Defense R. McNamara, Attorney General R. Kennedy. In the end, the latter win. As declassified transcripts show, J. Kennedy listened carefully to the expert opinions, but the final decision about the island blockade was reached by the president himself. In the article importance is also given to the meetings of the “Cuban crisis group” on October 27. It can be concluded that during deliberations on the response letter of J. Kennedy to N.S. Khrushchev, on the contents of negotiations with the Soviet Ambassador A.F. Dobrynin via confidential channel, the president was ultimately persuaded by arguments of R. Kennedy, L. Thompson, Th. Sorensen and some other advisers. Author comes to the conclusion that the mechanism of counselling the U.S. president in the crisis international situation, which was created in October 1962, had proved to be effective. On the whole, the Executive Committee made a significant contribution to the resolution of the Cuban conflict.