100. Editorial Note
At the meeting of September 12, 1963, McCone mentioned several additional courses of action; see numbered paragraph 9 of Document 99. McCone’s points were taken directly from an unattributed CIA paper entitled “A Program for Vietnam,” dated September 4. They comprise paragraphs a-e of what is described in the paper as a program which would “be a reasonably feasible outcome of current problems of Vietnam, although flexibility should be maintained on specific components.” The additional points of the program, which McCone did not mention, read as follows:
“f. Continue and strengthen Vice President Tho’s committee to negotiate a settlement of the Buddhist problem, emphasizing dealings with the local and provincial level clergy, pagodas, etc., on a religious, nonpolitical, basis.
“g. Terminate martial law, reactivate the civilian ministries, and hold the National Assembly elections as soon as reasonably possible. It would not be worth an effort to open the lists to new candidacies as it would be doubtful that any substantial opposition would present itself in any case.
“h. Reshuffle the government in certain minor respects such as replacing Ngo Trong Hieu as Minister of Civic Action.
“i. Endeavor to replace Nhu’s advisory role vis-a-vis Diem with a Vietnamese in whom he would have confidence. This might be a combination of two or three in a ‘Kitchen Cabinet’ to include such figures as Tran Quoc Buu, Trong Vinh Le (extremely weak but probably reassuring to Diem), Tran Ngoc Lien.
[Page 202]“j. Clarify the Vietnam Special Forces High Command (Colonel Tung) subordination to the Joint General Staff. The formal structure now provides for this but we could make particular efforts to ensure a Joint General Staff feeling of full knowledge and at least veto of VNSFHC activities.
“The above suggestions would be supplementary to and conceived as simultaneous with a program of graduated pressures on Diem which carefully signal to him the likelihood of more compelling U.S. actions, forced upon us by pressures of U.S. public and international opinion. They would indicate a sincere search for a way out which would continue the war and Diem’s leadership thereof.” (Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Vietnam Country Series, Memos and Miscellaneous)