2. Policy approval is requested to permit the sabotage of Cuban-owned vessels wherever and whenever secure access to them can be attained, normally this will be in non-Bloc ports. Attacks against the Cuban-owned ships must be considered essentially as attacks against targets of opportunity in the sense that in most cases there will be little advance information prior to the arrival of the ship in a non-Bloc port and the duration of the port call will be limited.
3. The following specific types of action are contemplated:
[13 paragraphs (40 lines of source text) not declassified]
6. It is necessary to submit the request for policy approval in a somewhat more general form than usual to permit us to take advantage of targets of opportunity as they occur. In most cases we will not have sufficient advance notice of the arrival of the ship or have sufficient access to the ship to permit the preparation and submission of detailed individual approval requests in advance. In every case where time and circumstance permit, specific proposals will be submitted to the Special Group (Augmented) for approval. Any case involving unusual operational or security risks will be submitted in advance for Special Group (Augmented) approval.
7. Later we will submit requests for policy approval of actions against other ships supplying Cuba.
William K. Harvey*
*Printed from a copy that indicates that Harvey signed the original.
Source: Department of State, ARA/CCA Files: Lot 66 D 501, Operation Mongoose. Top Secret; Sensitive.