Office of the Historian

54. Memorandum for the Record of a Meeting, White House1

Washington, February 20, 1964, 12:17 p.m.

SUBJECT

  • South Vietnam

The President met today with the Secretaries of State and Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Under Secretary Ball, Director McCone, and the members of Mr. William Sullivan’s committee on policy and operations in South Vietnam.

After an intelligence briefing on the current situation and a full discussion of the work of the committee, the President directed the following actions:

1.
Any requests for assistance or other Washington action from Ambassador Lodge should be given prompt and sympathetic response. Such staff work as may be required to back up such requests in Washington should be given the highest priority, so that decisions can be reached quickly.
2.
Contingency planning for pressures against North Vietnam should be speeded up. Particular attention should be given to shaping such pressures so as to produce the maximum credible deterrent effect on Hanoi.
3.
For the time being, American dependents in Vietnam should be encouraged to accept voluntary repatriation. Early next month, the Secretary of Defense will consult with Ambassador Lodge on whether dependents should be evacuated and will make appropriate recommendations to the President and the Secretary of State upon his return.
4.
The Department of State will explore in a positive manner the possibilities opened up by the recent proposals of Prince Sihanouk for a conference in Phnom Penh on the problem of Cambodian neutrality.2
M V Forrestal

  1. Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Vietnam Country File, Vol. IV, Memos and Misc. Secret. Drafted by Forrestal. Copies of this memorandum were sent to Rusk, McNamara, Taylor, McCone, Bell, and Sullivan.

    Prepared for this meeting, which lasted 1 hour, was an agenda, annotated by McGeorge Bundy, which reads as follows:

    “1. Situation Briefing (5 minutes); 2. Intelligence and Reporting, (A) Cooper Activities, (B) French Activities; 3. Operations, (A) Response to Lodge Message, (B) Policy on Dependents [Bundy wrote at this point “P[resident] prefers”], (C) Other Matters; 4. Diplomatic Problems, (A) Cambodia, (B) Laos, (C) Others; 5. North Viet-Nam, (A) Intelligence [Bundy wrote “increase efforts”], (B) Propaganda [Bundy wrote “increase”], (C) Operations; 6. Planning, (A) Johnson Subcommittee [Bundy wrote “Speed up”], (B) Question of Time Phase.” (Ibid.)

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  2. See American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1964, p. 847, footnote 7.↩