198. Editorial Note
On November 11, 1965, from 2:30 to 3:45 p.m., President Johnson met with Rusk, McNamara, Ball, McGeorge Bundy, and Moyers at the [Page 562] LBJ Ranch in Texas. (Johnson Library, President’s Daily Diary) According to a tentative agenda for the meeting, prepared for the President by Bundy on November 11, Vietnam was one of nine items to be discussed. In the annotated agenda, Bundy briefed the President on Vietnam as follows:
“The most important issues here are treated in the long draft Defense memorandum as revised in the State Department [Documents 189 and 194]. In the main, we are not looking for major decisions but for guidance in further planning. In essence, the issues are these:
- “(1) Should we currently plan for substantial additional deployments in 1966?
- “(2) Should any such additional deployments be preceded by a pause in bombing and/or a new diplomatic effort to prevent further enlargement of the contest? If we want a pause, we must begin to plan for it very promptly.
- “(3) What should be our current attitude toward increased bombing in the North in 1966?
- “(4) Do we need to choose between the Lodge and Goldberg views of negotiation now?
- “(5) Are we agreed on the underlying purpose of our effort in Vietnam: is it to seek a compromise settlement which would eventually turn Communist—or is it to ensure by all necessary means the establishment and maintenance of a non-Communist South Vietnam—and is this the real choice we face?
- “(6)We also have questions of timing and consultation: when should Lodge come back or when should we go to him? When should we begin additional consultation with Congress—or is such consultation needed? What, in short, is the time-table of decision in the coming weeks?” (Johnson Library, National Security File, Memos to the President, McGeorge Bundy, Vol. XVI)
No record of the meeting has been found.