NSC ExComm Meetings, 1962-1963

The ExComm (for Executive Committee of the National Security Council) was a special group set up by President Kennedy during the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis. He continued to call on it in the following months.

The ExComm is most famous for its meetings during the Cuban Missile Crisis. In confronting that crisis, President Kennedy sought more flexibility and selectivity than the formal National Security Council group allowed. The ExComm was a smaller group than the National Security Council proper as well giving the President the flexibility to bring in outside advisers on an ad hoc basis.

The famous photos of ExComm meetings (like the ones on this page) were taken on October 29, the day after the 13 days of peak crisis. Given the secrecy of the group’s discussions and the obvious tension in the air during the 13 days, photographers were not allowed in the room.The group formally came into being on October 22, 1962, and had its first meeting under the new title the following day. It held 42 numbered meetings with the President as well as 2 supplemental meetings without the President. Its last meeting was on March 29, 1963.

Members of the ExComm

In establishing the ExComm by a memorandum on October 22, Kennedy designated himself as chairman and listed the group’s core members. They were:¹

• President Kennedy
• Vice President Lyndon Johnson
• Dean Rusk (Secretary of State)
• Robert McNamara (Secretary of Defense)
• Douglas Dillon (Secretary of the Treasury)
• Robert Kennedy (Attorney General)
• John McCone (Director of Central Intelligence)
• General Maxwell Taylor (Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff)
• Llewellyn Thompson (Ambassador-at-Large)
• Theodore Sorensen (Special Counsel)
• McGeorge Bundy (Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs)

Bromley Smith (Executive Secretary of the National Security Council) kept notes and took care of the logistics of paper distribution and handling but was not a formal member of the ExComm and did not participate in the policy discussions.

The participants in any given ExComm meeting varied to some degree, in part as some officials shuttled between Washington and New York. Others had engagements out of town from time to time. And sometimes specialists were brought in for specific briefings. Various other participants joined most or some of the ExComm’s meetings. They included:

• George Ball (Under Secretary of State)
• Roswell Gilpatric (Deputy Secretary of Defense)
• Paul Nitze (Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs)
• Adlai Stevenson (U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations)
• John McCloy (Chairman of the Coordinating Committee)
• Edwin Martin (Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs)
• Edward R. Murrow (Director of the U.S. Information Agency)
• Donald Wilson (Deputy Director of the U.S. Information Agency)
• Kenneth O’Donnell (Special Assistant to the President)
• Pierre Salinger (White House Press Secretary)
• U. Alexis Johnson (Deputy Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs)
• Harlan Cleveland (Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs)
• Sterling Cottrell (Coordinator for Cuban Affairs)
• Robert Manning (Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs)
• Arthur Sylvester (Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs)
• William C. Foster (Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency)
• Dean Acheson (former Secretary of State)
• Joseph Charyk (Under Secretary of the Air Force)
• Lincoln Gordon (U.S. Ambassador to Brazil)
• Chester Bowles (President’s Special Representative and Adviser on African, Asian, and Latin American Affairs)
• William Tyler (Assistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs)

ExComm Meetings

The group was formed to deal with the Cuba crisis, and that was by far the dominant topic of most of their discussions. But Kennedy also called on the group to provide advice on the situation in the Congo, the proposal for a multilateral nuclear force for NATO (MLF), India, Pakistan, and Brazil.

In almost all instances, the ExComm meeting in the Cabinet Room at the White House. President Kennedy secretly recorded many of their meetings. And as you can see clearly on the timeline below, the ExComm’s meeting became much less frequent into 1963.

This is a complete list of all the ExComm meetings. Each ExComm meeting was assigned a number at the time by the White House national security staff. [You can find a list of the formal meetings of the National Security Council here.] There were frequently interdepartmental break-out sessions to continue discussions started in the ExComm, but they were not designated as NSC meetings and are not listed here.

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Date	Time	Meeting Number	Topic/s	Notes
10/23/1962	10:00	1st ExComm	Cuba
10/23/1962	18:00	2nd ExComm	Cuba
10/24/1962	10:00	3rd ExComm	Cuba
10/25/1962	10:00	4th ExComm	Cuba
10/25/1962	17:00	5th ExComm	Cuba
10/26/1962	10:00	6th ExComm	Cuba
10/27/1962	10:00	7th ExComm	Cuba
10/27/1962	16:00	8th ExComm	Cuba
10/27/1962	21:00	9th ExComm	Cuba
10/28/1962	11:10	10th ExComm	Cuba
10/29/1962	10:00	11th ExComm	Cuba
10/29/1962	18:30	12th ExComm	Cuba
10/30/1962	10:00	13th ExComm	Cuba
10/31/1962	10:00	14th ExComm	Cuba
10/31/1962	18:00	15th ExComm	Cuba
11/1/1962	10:00	16th ExComm	Cuba
11/2/1962	11:00	17th ExComm	Cuba
11/3/1962	10:00	18th ExComm	Cuba
11/3/1962	16:30	19th ExComm	Cuba
11/5/1962	10:00	20th ExComm	Cuba
11/6/1962	18:15	21st ExComm	Cuba
11/7/1962	17:00	22nd ExComm	Cuba
11/8/1962	16:30	23rd ExComm	Cuba
11/12/1962	11:00	24th ExComm	Cuba
11/12/1962	17:00	25th ExComm	Cuba
11/16/1962	11:00	26th ExComm	Cuba
11/16/1962	14:30	26-A ExComm	Cuba	President and Vice President did not attend.
11/19/1962	10:00	27th ExComm	Cuba
11/20/1962	15:30	28th ExComm	Cuba	Vice President did not attend.
11/21/1962	16:00	29th ExComm	Cuba	Vice President did not attend.
11/23/1962	10:30	30th ExComm	Cuba	At Kennedy compound at Hyannis Port. John McCone and Vice President did not attend.
11/29/1962	10:00	31st ExComm	Cuba
12/3/1962	10:00	32nd ExComm	Cuba, India, Pakistan
12/4/1962	17:30	32-A ExComm	Cuba	President and Vice President did not attend.
12/6/1962	11:00	33rd ExComm	Cuba
12/10/1962	17:40	34th ExComm	Cuba	Vice President did not attend.
12/11/1962	10:00	35th ExComm	Brazil	Vice President did not attend.
12/17/1962	10:00	36th ExComm	Cuba, NATO Meeting, Congo, South Asia
12/17/1962	15:45	37th ExComm	Congo, Cuba
1/25/1963	16:00	38th ExComm	Cuba
1/31/1963	18:00	39th ExComm	NATO, France
2/5/1963	16:00	40th ExComm	Cuba, NATO Multilateral Nuclear Force (MLF)
2/12/1963	10:00	41st ExComm	NATO Multilateral Nuclear Force (MLF)
3/29/1963	12:30	42nd ExComm	Cuba