391. Memorandum of telephone conversation between the President and Ball, October 241
Pres.—I have had this letter read to me. Should we answer that?
Ball—There is no point to answer it until we see what happens tomorrow morning. Bob McNamara says thing which they are likely to get tomorrow is a tanker and we will halt it and ask it where it is going.
Pres.—If it does not respond?
Ball—Then we stop it. There really is not a . . . . . . . . . . . . . we answer here.
Pres.— . . . . . . . . sympathethic.
Ball—I don’t think we should hesitate at all.
Pres.—Appeal to reasoning, but I wouldn’t know whether we might give that back to him. I wouldn’t want to hesitate. It seems to me that this record will be published. . . . . . . . . . my two letters to him and his two to me. This is a sympathetic appeal. Imagine what you would do if you were in my position. Who have we got around here who can write a letter?
Ball—Harlan Cleveland is here and myself. We can do that.
Pres.—It wouldn’t have to be too long. “As I stated in my speech, reassurances that these weapons are not being sent. That is the reason we are taking this stand, and it is a source of regret to me.” This thing is supposed to come through at 2 am. . . . . . . . .
[Typeset Page 1188]Ball—The way the situation stands is that the ship which we would stop is a tanker. We are not authorized to board or take any action if the boat refuses to stop.
Pres.—Let’s assume that this tanker is not going to stop for us. We ought to have a first case a tanker or another ship, a cargo ship.
Ball—He sent all the cargo ships back and left in this situation. Unless we make an issue of the first ship, they will think in Moscow that we have chickened out.2 Let me talk further with McNamara about that tonight.
[Facsimile Page 2]Ball (con’t.) If we wait two or three days, they may think we do not mean it.
Pres.—Let me talk to Bob and come back to you. If we are not going to check this one. . . . . . . . . In view of his wire, we can probably afford to be more fuzzy about our answer to U Thant.
Ball—We could hold off an answer to U Thant tonight and give it to him in the morning.
Pres.—the press will not do it.
Ball—It might we just as well to put it off until we see what will happen to the tanker in the morning.
Pres.—Then take another look at it. I wouldn’t see any advantage in this tonight. Is that what Adlai wants.
Ball—I talked to Dean. I have not been able to reach Adlai.
Pres.—I will be back in a minute.
- Response to Khrushchev message; possible interception of tanker at sea on the morning of October 25. No classification marking. 3 pp. DOS, Ball Papers: Lot 74 D 272, Telcons—Cuba.↩
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*Pres—. . .
Ball—Adm Ricket said he thought we could stop it without having any trouble.
Pres—If we wouldn’t want to have this as our first one then we should stay away from this one.
Ball—I have the impression that there isn’t going to be anything else going through tomorrow w/out this tanker. Cont on p. 2
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