177-10001-10445
2025 RELEASE UNDER THE PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY ASSASSINATION RECORDS ACT OF 1992
JFK Assassination System
Date:
8/26/201
AGENCY:
LBJ
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Identification Form
Agency Information
177-10001-10445
NSF, JOHN MCCONE MEMORANDA, MTGS. 6 JAN. 64-2 APR. 64, BOX 1
MCCONE, JOHN
ORIGINATOR:
CIA
FROM:
TO:
TITLE:
Document Information
DATE:
PAGES:
02/21/1964
2
SUBJECTS:
NEED SUBJECT ASSIGNED
DOCUMENT TYPE:
MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD
CLASSIFICATION:
RESTRICTIONS:
Secret
CURRENT STATUS:
Withhold
DATE OF LAST REVIEW:
OPENING CRITERIA :
COMMENTS:
DOC. #12
v9.1
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20 February 1964
MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD
SUBJECT: Meeting with the President 20 February 1964 - Alone
1. I advised the President of my willingness to go with him and to meet
early in the day with General Eisenhower if he thought this would be
constructive. He said he felt General Eisenhower might feel he was being
high-pressured and that he intended merely to advise him of the plan to
surface the OXCART and exchange formalities. He would then tell him hé
was ordering me to go out and brief him in the next week or two and I
should make my own arrangements.
2. I told the President we had a very sensitive effective operation
working in Mexico City jointly with President Mateos which involved
telephone surveillance and was being done in a most careful manner with
his knowledge and with the assistance of a few of his trusted officials.
This had resulted in a very intimate relationship between our station chief,
Mr. Win Scott and the President. Ambassador Mann knew of this from
Scott, as did certain selected people in State Department. However
President Mateos did not know of Mann's knowledge of the operation and
looked upon the operation as an intimate arrangement between himself and
the CIA station. I mentioned that Mateos had been best man at Win Scott's
recent wedding. I said the President should not mention this but I wanted
him to know about it if it was raised by President Mateos.
3. I told President Johnson that we continued our interrogation of
Nosenko; our counterintelligence people were inclined to feel he was a
plant but had not made up their minds. President said he thought he was
probably legitimate and would give us some good information. I said I
hoped this was true that we certainly were taking advantage of everything
that he did give us; that we were working closely with the FBI, however we
could only conclude at the moment that the Soviet's performance and
action were so different from any other defector case that our suspicions
had been aroused. The President asked to be kept informed.
4. The President then raised the question of Spain, suggesting I
might return to Spain to talk again to Franco. He said he was in a very
difficult situation because of announcement of the cut-off of aid to
Britain, France and Yugoslavia which he did not know about until he read it
in the paper, and that he was beside himself because he wanted to give aid
of $31 million to Spain but had the greatest difficulty in the justification.
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I told the President it was my impression from information gained from
clandestine sources that Franco had made some moves to curtail trade
with Cuba after my visit with him but that the Spanish companies were
endeavoring to circumvent his orders by various surreptitious methods.
The President asked that I study the matter carefully and speak to him
about it next week.
ACTION: I have asked Mr. O'Ryan to contact Noel
and I am asking Mr. Ball to contact Ambassador Woodward to
determine whether the Spanish had taken any actions which they
have announced or might communicate to us which would indicate
an intention on their part to curtail or restrict shipping or trade
with Cuba.
5. The President then said he wanted to do everything possible to
get me out of the cloak and dagger business. That he was tired of
a situation that had been built up that every time my name or CIA's name
was mentioned, it was associated with a dirty trick. He asked if our
economic studies had stood up and I said yes, they had, and that they were
reconfirmed and supported by an exhaustive article in TIME Magazine.
The President seemed pleased at this., expressed satisfaction in CIA's
operations but was most emphatic in his feelings that we should get away
from the cloak and dagger image and expressed a determination to bring
this about by statements he would make from time to time.
JAM/mfb
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