Office of the Historian

168. Memorandum for the Record0

Washington, August 25, 1961.

SUBJECT

  • Telephone Conversation with Mr. Alex Johnson re Southeast Asian Planning
1.
Responding to my question as to where we stand following the Thursday evening meeting at State,1 he replied that he was working on the “Johnson Plan.” The “Johnson Plan” apparently has two parts to be developed and applied concurrently.
2.
The first part is to give a good “college try” to a consummation of the negotiations in Geneva. This will require putting the heat on Phoumi to get him to join in an honest effort. As the second part, in anticipation of lack of success at Geneva, we will concurrently move forward in preparations for expanding SEATO 5 into the enlarged version contained in the Steeves Plan.2 Discussions would be started at once in SEATO to get agreement to this modification. The Soviets would be contacted [Page 383] in order to allow them to understand the seriousness with which we view the situation. In any case, they would likely hear of our discussions in SEATO.
3.
Agreement having been obtained, at about the advent of the dry season we would declare Condition Yellow under SEATO Plan 5. We could also begin introducing additional military advisers to the FAL and could probably persuade [less than 1 line of source text not declassified].
4.
In order to get cooperation from Thailand and the other countries in the area, our intention would have to be clear to support the situation by SEATO 5 if necessary. In order to make this intention clear, we could organize a military exercise requiring U.S. forces to move into Thailand.
5.
The foregoing are apparently the principal points of the “Johnson Plan.” It is being elaborated on over this week end and something should be available by Monday.3
M.D.T.4
  1. Source: National Defense University, Taylor Papers, Southeast Asia National Planning, No. 2. No classification marking. Prepared by Taylor.↩
  2. See Document 167.↩
  3. The Steeves Plan refers to the draft of August 25; see footnote 1, Document 165.↩
  4. August 28.↩
  5. Printed from a copy that bears these typed initials.↩