Cuban Project by late August, the Soviet military build-up in Cuba disgruntled the Kennedy administration. The fear of open military retaliation against the United States and Berlin for the US covert operations in Cuba slowed down the operation. By October, as the Cuban Missile Crisis heated up, President Kennedy demanded the cessation of Operation Mongoose. Operation Mongoose formally ceased its activities at the end of 1962. The first assassination plots began in the late summer of 1960, according to the Church Committee’s documentation. Some of the plots and ideas ranged from “poisoned pills, an exploding seashell, and a planned gift of a
US signals intelligence in the Cold War when compromised, by Ronald Pelton, in 1981. SIGINT had much operational impact during this period, with the Cuban Missile Crisis, steady ramping up of warfare in Southeast Asia, and US domestic surveillance. Aircraft, UAV, ship, and ground SIGINT all were in use, and satellite technology left the experimental stage. The Ryan Q-2A evolved into the Q-2C Firebee target drone of 1960 which remains in active service. In 1961, the Air Force requested a reconnaissance version of the Firebee then designated the BQM-34A which resulted in the Ryan Model 147 (later to be designated AQM-34 by USAF). This RPV (Remotely Piloted