26. Telegram From the Ambassador in Vietnam (Lodge) to the Secretary of State1
[document number not declassified]. 1. At meeting with General Khanh today I told him that he would soon be briefed on a program of intensified activity in North Vietnam, which I said should be accompanied by intensified activity against the Viet Cong in South Vietnam.
2. He already knew of this in a general way and said that he was disturbed at the thought that General Don still had the briefing papers on the subject. He feared that these papers would get into hands of neutralists and then into the hands of Communists, and he was trying to recover the documents.
3. It seems to me that if General Don is as General Khanh thinks he is, we must assume that copies have already been made and are already in the hands of those who ought not to have them.
- Source: Department of State, Vietnam Working Group Files; Lot 72 D 219, TIGER Basic File. Secret, Nodis. Sent over CIA channels. The source text, which bears no time of transmission from Saigon, is a copy sent by the CIA at 3:25 p.m. to the Department of State for Hilsman. Also sent to the JCS for Krulak and the White House for McGeorge Bundy.↩