Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963, Volume IV, Vietnam, August–December 1963

102. Telegram From the Embassy in Vietnam to the Department of State¹

Saigon, September 13, 1963.

505. Eyes only for the Secretary. CINCPAC POLAD exclusive for Adm Felt. Deptel 391.²

1. Do not see advantage of frequent conversations with Diem if I have nothing new to bring up. Believe mere repetition of points already made would look weak. Visiting Diem is an extremely time-consuming procedure, and it seems to me there are many better ways in which I can use my waking hours. One is by going ahead with my diplomatic calls on the members of the Cabinet who are numerous and who give me interesting information and, of course, another is to spend some time thinking. Not enough hours in the day to do everything I want to do.

2. Do not believe either your paragraph 4 a or b will bring removal of the Nhus unless they are geared to a Vietnamese coup d’etat which is well organized around one man. I would certainly not do a or b as isolated measures.

3. Hope some study will be given to what our response should be if Nhu, in the course of a negotiation with North Vietnam, should ask the US to leave South Vietnam or to make a major reduction in forces. This is obviously the only trump card he has got and it is obviously of the highest importance. It is also obvious to me that we must not leave. But the question of finding a proper basis for remaining is at first blush not simple.

Lodge

1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, POL 1 S VIET-US. Top Secret. There is no time of transmission on the source text. Received at 7:02 a.m. Repeated to CINCPAC. Passed to the White House at 7:30 a.m.
2. Document 97.