February 18, 1976Primary sourceWell documented

Executive Order 11905: Ford Bans Assassination

On the timeline · around February 18, 1976 ·

What happened

The exposure of the Castro plots produced a landmark reform. On February 18, 1976, President Gerald Ford signed Executive Order 11905, declaring that 'no employee of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, political assassination.'

Why it matters

For the first time the United States formally banned the very kind of assassination plotting it had aimed at Castro — a prohibition reaffirmed by every president since.

Sources

Gerald R. Ford / The American Presidency Project (UCSB). Executive Order 11905 — United States Foreign Intelligence Activities (1976) · Primary source

Part of a timelineThe Plots to Kill Castro32 events · Exploding cigars, Mafia hitmen, a poisoned milkshake, a booby-trapped seashell, a lethal pen handed over the day JFK died — and decades of exile plots after. The CIA's documented campaign to assassinate Fidel Castro, and the man who outlived it all.View all →