Office of the Historian

75. Telegram From the Embassy in Vietnam to the Department of State1

Saigon, February 6, 1965, 6 p.m.

2414. Exclusive for William Bundy from McGeorge Bundy. Please pass to Bromley Smith for President. Discussions here still continuing this evening. We have made considerable progress in discussions of dependent problem and contingency planning but have agreed that mission should present its views in separate telegrams so as to avoid joint recommendations as inappropriate for both Ambassador and me. Accordingly we now plan to prepare our own analytical report en route home rather than to send detailed comments now. Tomorrow will be spent in the field and should give additional color to conclusions which will contain few major surprises. Overall impression is that important decisions are necessary but that there is time in which to make them.

Taylor
  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, POL 1–1 VIET S. Secret. A note on the source text indicates that a copy was passed to the White House at 10:05 a.m.↩