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

362. Telegram From the Secretary of Defense (McNamara) to the Ambassador in Vietnam (Lodge)¹

Washington, December 12, 1963.

DIASO-34783-63. The President has asked me to stop in Saigon on my return from the NATO meeting in order to assure that we receive promptly the plans and recommendations of the Country Team for:

1. Covert operations by South Vietnamese forces, utilizing such support of US forces as is necessary, against North Vietnam. Plans for such operations should include varying levels of pressure all designed to make clear to the North Vietnamese that the US will not accept a Communist victory in South Vietnam and that we will escalate the conflict to whatever level is required to insure their defeat.

2. Cross-border operations into a strip of Laos approximately fifty kilometers wide. The operations to be carried out by specially trained South Vietnamese forces utilizing such US advisory personnel as are necessary. These operations would be designed both to obtain evidence of infiltration of military cadres and military equipment from North Vietnam into South Vietnam and also to disrupt such infiltration.

3. Such aerial reconnaissance as is required to check on the extent of infiltration of arms from North Vietnam to South Vietnam through Laos and Cambodia.

4. Border patrol activities designed to determine and check the extent of the infiltration of cadres and military equipment from North Vietnam through Laos and Cambodia to South Vietnam.

5. Accelerating and intensifying the military campaign against the Viet Cong in thirteen critical provinces. You will recall we agreed in Honolulu that the Country Team would prepare a detailed analysis of the political, economic and military problem in each of these provinces and a detailed plan providing for the solution of those problems. The plans should be specific as to geography, time and resources to be employed.

As a foundation for the review of these plans, I should like to receive the Country Team’s appraisal of the effectiveness of the new government’s political, economic and military programs.

I expect to arrive in Saigon mid-morning, Thursday, December 19, and hope to meet with you and your staff during that day and the next to review in detail the plans and recommendations which I have been instructed to take back with me to Washington. William Colby and General Krulak will arrive a day ahead of me for the purpose of completing a preliminary review before I arrive.

1. Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Vietnam Country File, Cables. Secret; Eyes Only. Repeated to the Department of State for Hilsman and the White House for McGeorge Bundy. The time of transmission on the source text is unclear.