264. Editorial Note
Following the dispatch of the Draft Action Plan Vietnam (see the Enclosure to Document 235), Chalmers B. Wood received suggested revisions of the paper from members of the Vietnam Working Group, the Embassy in Saigon, and officers of the Southeast Asia Task Force. A second draft of the paper was discussed at the third meeting of the Southeast Asia Task Force on July 11, 1962 (Minutes; Department of State; S/S Files: Lot 66 D 219), but further work on it was postponed pending the Sixth Secretary of Defense Conference at Honolulu, July 23 (see Document 248), Wood completed revision of the paper (third draft) on July 30 and distributed it for final review by United States officials in Washington and Saigon. The final draft of the paper, dated August 14, noted the following:
“The basic U.S. objective of keeping the Republic of Viet-nam an independent and viable nation requires an integrated plan of action, including political, economic, military, psychological … operations in Viet-nam. These activities, both U.S. and Vietnamese, should be focused on five key problems which must be solved in order to achieve our overall policy objectives.”
For text of this 9-page paper, see Declassified Documents, 1978, 113A.