Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, Vietnam, Volume I

182. Letter From the Ambassador in Vietnam (Durbrow) to the Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs (Parsons)¹

Saigon, July 27, 1960.

Dear Jeff: I should have answered your letter of June 9th in reply to my letter of April 19th on the problem I had with General Williams² about guerrilla training, etc., but as you know we have been fairly busy around here recently.

You will be interested to know that in reply to the “Eyes Only” memorandum³ I sent to General Williams (which I enclosed with my letter of April 19th), I received a very voluminous study⁴ with the usual annexes and tabs “explaining” what had been done. As you can well imagine, the “explanation” went all over the lot and landed nowhere and added up to a rather weak explanation as to why they had not done more in the anti-guerrilla training field, although we had been pressing them on this for some time. The General obviously didn’t like my memorandum and has been trying to make it clear to me one way or the other that my “impressions” were wrong. The thing that counts, however, is that he and the other MAAG officers are now working fast and furiously to meet the guerrilla situation.

Despite his uncooperative attitude, I still like the old gentlemen and we snarl at each other but usually with smiles. He is leaving in early September and I hope I can follow through on the efforts you are making to start General McGarr off on the right track.⁵ The MAAG scuttlebutt is that he is another hard-bitten soldier, but this time I will have the inside track and hope I can get him to cooperate better than his predecessor.

Since I have had to hit Diem so hard in the last few months I am somewhat in his dog house, although as we have indicated in our recent messages he seems to be moving slowly along the lines we have suggested.

I assume, particularly since I’m in his dog house, that Diem will try to take McGarr into camp and see if he can make him a “yes” man as Williams has been on many occasions except on some military matters. Although I have been questioned somewhat critically by Senator Mansfield and other members of Congress about the special relationship between Diem and Williams, I doubt if it would be worth while or productive to try to prevent Diem from seeing McGarr alone. As you know, Diem likes to work that way and so my problem will be to be sure that McGarr always sounds the “party line” and reports fully his conversations with Diem to me. I might add, incidentally, that Williams has been fairly good about that since I called him several times on his lack of fuller reports.

. . . . . . .

In a lighter vein you will be interested in the following typical Saigon rumors I picked up in the last few weeks. Rumor No. 1: General Williams will succeed me as Ambassador. Rumor No. 2: General Ed Lansdale will succeed me as Ambassador. I have been asked this seriously by two or three people in town so I am glad to say my days in Saigon are obviously numbered.

I am hoping that the few favorable improvements on Diem’s part we have noted recently will continue and that I can break the new General in sufficiently to be able to leave here in November as I wrote you I now plan to do. Thanks again for all the wonderful back-stopping you and the others in FE have given us.

With kindest personal regards to you both,

Sincerely yours,

Durby
Elbridge Durbrow

1. Source: Department of State, Vietnam Working Group Files: Lot 66 D 193, 18. VN 1960—Gen. Lionel McGarr. Extracts. Secret; Official–Informal; Limit Distribution.
2. Documents 171 and 140, respectively.
3. Document 141.
4. Document 167.
5. In a letter to Durbrow, August 12, Anderson reported on consultations between the newly-designated MAAG Chief, Vietnam, Major General Lionel McGarr, and Department of State officials (Anderson himself, Parsons, and Bell) in which the Department officials stressed the importance of close coordination with the Ambassador, avoidance of letting Diem play MAAG Chief against Ambassador, and the need for anti-guerrilla training for ARVN. (Department of State, Vietnam Working Group Files: Lot 66 D 193, 18. VN 1960—Gen. Lionel McCarr)