WHERE THE MISSILE GAP WENT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000700440021-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 4, 2006
• Sequence Number: 21
• Publication Date: February 15, 1962
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2006/08 ITS q1t19o
ply sy tetTr.. While ltuLdreds ? 1, Rus
zIatis and Czechs st ere now . to :1
~Y t : 7f^ ai
working ~ alongsf lc Cuban ,'gt v~l'tr-
mcnt offttuls, particularly ilt asp'
snored forces, the outright '45su_
tion of government I'?`~ Y r'
fnnr tionstries cam as", curb ,
a' Ilrtrry of tonjectftten h
ne.eat esttenett~cxfto;r t t
The Balaltcit ](A S1~tEftfng `
On l)eccfmber I ~.asli 3' t" ltf tt(t t`=
'"f am a Sattiewet st=l CCst;?"
mid c lairtted to have 'been nd._slt' c`c
his student clays. Perhaps,"fiaalfy
realizing that the organization was
getting ahead of him, he wast'ying
,t.tbli,h his (onmunkt` en
ii-ii, in ?(Icr to buttress his 'post at'ton
.i, It uiei ul t (Communist tOudtry.
1t'11.41e set his reasons may have been,
(.,sass's newly declarer devotion to
onunutrisnt slid not please the
t.tnumuni,ts His remarks were 'not
repotted in the Cuban press, and
all referene:cs to Ills Communist
t,;ec ft;routtd were deleted from the
test i,uhlished in Bulvetnra mega-
iinc Furthermore, recent speeches
liv 1, .t. Roca and Anfhal Escalante
ha, e hanunet ed away at the need
lot pa is loyalty and democratic
(euu.dism and have attar.k>*V`the
t ,d t of personality and the t'tvitvn.s.
,nut;,. and slogans" of Fidelismb. '
I t the current: measures, -of ndoc-
ttinatiott and reprt'asion carried on
hr OR I give any evidence of sue-
t ,.. the way will be cleared for the
t eat ion, probably later this year, of
t more formal political org nira-
iion In a frankly Crtrimunisr pt,es
ent.Ytion over a TV. program called
('rvi,,r Arrurnza. Anibal Escalante re.
Iet,etl too "the final step"-the cstab?
i?l,tner,t of the United Party of the
Res tlut~(Yn (PUR). He:said that al-
t!tottgh ORI could be considered
the ittterntediate step to the PUR,
the% wet (' actually one and thesame.
It was nit-rely a matter of "transi.
sense The PT'R will then take the
IYl,tcr of ORI as the political base
,d c.nmtnunist power in Cuba.
\\'hc-n this happens. Castro may
he to to count the days he will rule
011 "maximum leader" of the
t'iih;nt revolution. At this point thr
,mnist, ,till need Castro, h.:r
r, !1111(!, a, Castro needs ii'
SENATOR STUART SYMiNGTON
issile gap," so fat as
s
THE TERM "m
I know, was. coined by a well-
known newspaperman several )eats
Vigo,. it 'WWC4nt that the Russians
were ahead of us in developing .tncl
building intercontinental ballistic
missiles, which they would have in
significant numbers-before we. did.
It was thought that this situation
would coutiuue for a long time bc-
cause this country had failed to put
eriough etl'ort. into developing lcurg?
range ballistic missiles. But the mis-
sik a r, from the clay it became a
mare of ,ppublic concern, had an
unaccountable way of narrowing,
closing, atid,.0c-casionail)' vanishing
?alcogether;
Sometimes, this was accomplished
simply by official ,; pronouncements.
Sometimes. as, in 1059, it was ac?
cvtlpplished by adding unmanned
bgjbers to our preclictedrstpckpilC
o(1t;BMs while making no compen-
sating' addition to the predicted So-
viet stockpile. Needless to say. the
missile- gap could not be so easils?
disposed of. Former Vice-President
Ni)eon's assurance in 1959 that the
gap was narrowing was followed by
former can Director Allen Dulles's
testimony in 1960 that the Soviets
were widening theijrlead.
IN RrC.FNT MONTi4s, however, the
missile gap appears to have been
clone away with once and for all.
Not only is there no gap, we are in-
formed by the press, but there nev-
er urns one, and those who %a[(] them r
was were guilty at best of halluc-i
nation and at worst of ort,c?thing
like bad faith. Consignitt,, the inis~
silt, gap to the "!hobo of synthetic
issues where it always belonged,"
a New fork Times editor ial not long
ago declared, "I'll(, same forces and
the ,acne Congressional and jour.
nalistir, mouthpieces who nuutulat
turecl ail alleged bomber gap in the
Nineteen Ftlties sponsored, and iat
deed invented, tine alleged missile
gap in the Nineteen Sixties." A
sutrtewhat unusual rewriting of his.
rots was provided bN William
Stringer in the C.lvrrstiarr Science
Afonitvr: "... the old missile gap nev-
er existed except in speculation
and in politics." he wrote, reinforcing
brie claim with the Infort.rtatton that
Presidential candidate Kennedy
"wi?th an eye to accuracy, rett?rred,
very sparingly to the missile gap.
What he mainly discussed. in his
campaign speech to the American
Legion,convention at Miami Beach,
October. 18, 1960, and elsewhere,
was what might be termed the vul-
nerability gap." B\ my count, \(r.
Kennedy warned of the missile gal,
in no less than nine campaign
speeches just among those whit,h
have been reprinted. To the Amer-
ican Legion convention in Miami
Leach, Ire in fact quoted General
Maxwell D. Taylor's statement, "We
are now threatened with a missile
gap that leaves us in a position of
potentially grave danger."
Whether or not there was a mis-
sile gap, it is clear that President
Kennedy believed there was.' So for
III.,( matter did former Secret:uie-
of Defense M(Elros and, Gates and
(:nvernot Nelson Rockefeller, arnorig
others Relving on authnritatt' l
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t 1Ofi12 O I/C
Approved For Release 2006/08/09: CIA-R?P75-00149R000700440021-7