Office of the Historian

326. Briefing Paper Prepared in the Department of State for President Johnson1

Washington, November 23, 1963.

THE PRESIDENT’S MEETING WITH HENRY CABOT LODGE, AMBASSADOR TO VIETNAM

1.

Purpose of visit

Ambassador Lodge is in Washington to discuss Viet-Nam with the President and other high U.S. officials who did not attend the Honolulu meeting on November 20.

2.

You may wish to:

  • —Commend Ambassador Lodge on his superb handling of a difficult situation.
  • —Draw him out on the Vietnamese situation:
    1.
    Political prospects of the new government.
    2.
    Military outlook.
    3.
    Changes in the strategic hamlet program.
    4.
    Anticipated course of negotiations to meet 1964 budgetary deficit.
  • —Review with him the draft National Security Action Memorandum emerging from the Honolulu meeting, which Mr. Bundy has initiated.2

3.
Ambassador Lodge will raise two matters with you, but we are not informed as to what they are.
  1. Source: Johnson Library, National Security Files, Vietnam Country File, Memos and Misc., 11/63-12/63. Secret. Transmitted to the President under cover of an undated memorandum from Rusk.↩
  2. For the approved version, see Document 331.↩