107. Editorial Note
In a July 20, 1961, memorandum to President Kennedy, Robert Komer of the National Security Council Staff recommended “stepping up the momentum in South Vietnam. I believe it very important that this government have a major anti-Communist victory to its credit in the six months before the Berlin crisis is likely to get really hot. Few things would be better calculated to show Moscow and Peiping that we mean business than an obvious (if not yet definitive) turnaround in Vietnam.” For text, see Foreign Relations, 1961–1963, volume I, pages 234–236.