354. Memorandum of Telephone Conversation Between the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense (McNamara)1
TELEPHONE CALL FROM McNAMARA
McN. said that while he was seeing the Pres. on economic moves and personnel reduction, he told him that he should stop over in Saigon on the way back and he said he had already mentioned this to the Sec. The Pres. gave McN. quite a lecture on South Viet-Nam and expressed concern that we as a government were not doing everything we should. The Pres. was to make a statement to the press about personnel reductions and at the same time he told the press that McN. was going to Saigon;2 this was contrary to what the Sec and McN. had agreed on. McN. said he might comment that this was just one of a series of visits, that he had not made one for 24 months, and that he would stop in Saigon on the way home from the NATO meeting.
- Source: Department of State, Rusk Files: Lot 72 D 192, Telephone Conversations. Transcribed by Francis H. Rawlings of the Office of the Secretary of State.↩
- McNamara visited Vietnam, December 19-20. President Johnson announced the McNamara visit at a press conference on December 7. For the transcript, see Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1963-1964, pp. 34-38.↩