Office of the Historian

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

Saigon, September 14, 1963, 1 p.m.

507. CINCPAC/POLAD exclusive for Admiral Felt. Eyes only for the Secretary. Your 405.2

1.
Agree another demarche by me to Diem to prevent Mme. Nhu from talking would be a mistake. I have already told both Diem and Nhu that she should stop talking. I made quite a point of it. My guess is that they have on occasion tried to restrain her without accomplishing much, although she was relatively quiet during my first three weeks in Vietnam.
2.
Diem answered me last Monday that Mme. Nhu was going to hold press conferences in New York as a matter of justice to herself and he evidently approved of her doing so. I told him it would have a bad effect on US opinion. While I believe they have urged her to keep still, there is no doubt that they both approve the general tenor of her speeches. This is one of the things that is fundamentally wrong with the family; they prefer to spend their time striking back at old insults, which result in more bad publicity, instead of going ahead with the war, thereby bringing constructive events to pass which would give them a good press. They seem to take no interest in what other people may think, but are simply interested in expressing their own feelings and their own pride. They are really non-politicians.
3.
Do not believe [less than 1 line not declassified] would succeed, as he has already pushed Mme. Nhu to the limit to behave herself—once on the telephone in my presence and on two other occasions in personal visits.
4.
We are using your wire giving the text of the Church resolution3 and are pointing out that one more foolish speech by Mme. Nhu could put more signatures onto the resolution.
Lodge
  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, POL 1 S VIET-US. Top Secret; Priority. Received at 3:11 a.m. Repeated to CINCPAC. Passed to the White House at 4:44 a.m.↩
  2. See footnote 2, Document 98.↩
  3. See footnote 3, Document 84.↩