Office of the Historian

190. Memorandum of Telephone Conversation Between Secretary of State Rusk and the President’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bundy)1

Washington, November 7, 1965, 12:55 p.m.

TELEPHONE CALL TO MR. Mac George Bundy

Sec asked if he had seen Saigon’s Nodis 16052 and about the request to do some probing. Mr. Bundy said it seemed to him his senior was right and he was more hopeful than he was. Sec asked if he had seen the ticker about the Commissar of the North Vietnamese battalion turning himself in—UPI 820. Bundy said he thought the Sec was right on the nose on the basic structure yesterday.3 Bundy said he came out where the Sec did. It is not a time to make great changes. Sec said he had lived through the Berlin Blockade, Korea and you played for breaks. He was confident the breaks would come. Bundy said he was all for that. Sec asked about getting this to the ranch. Bundy said he was worried about the sensitivity of it and would pouch it. Sec said to mark it Eyes Only President. Bundy will get it on first plane.

  1. Source: Department of State, Rusk Files: Lot 72 D 192, Telephone Conversations. No classification marking. Transcribed by Mildred Asbjornson. A handwritten note on the source text reads: “Amb Johnson was present for the call.”↩
  2. For the text as sent to the President, see Document 191.↩
  3. Rusk met with McNamara, McGeorge Bundy, and Vance at 2:58 p.m. on November 6. They were joined at 3 p.m. by Ball and then U. Alexis Johnson, and the meeting lasted until at least 4:25 p.m. (Johnson Library, Rusk Appointment Book) For a general account of these discussions, see Document 192.↩