Office of the Historian

42. Memorandum From the President’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bundy) to President Johnson1

Washington, July 1, 1965, 5:50 p.m.

SUBJECT

  • Meeting Friday Morning on Vietnam

I have just come from another long session in the State Department on the draft papers2 for discussion tomorrow. These papers will offer two main alternatives: George Ball’s preference for a negotiated withdrawal, [Page 116] and Bob McNamara’s recommendation of a substantial increase of military strength, with a call-up of reserves during this summer.

I find that both Rusk and McNamara feel strongly that the George Ball paper should not be argued with you in front of any audience larger than yourself, Rusk, McNamara, Ball, and me. They feel that it is exceedingly dangerous to have this possibility reported in a wider circle. Moreover, both of them feel great reticence about expressing their own innermost thoughts to you in front of any larger group. So they both would prefer a meeting limited to the five of us in the morning.

The disadvantage of this is that it cuts you off from a chance to talk freely with some other men who have expert opinions—like Thompson and General Wheeler and Lodge (whom I can easily take care of in another way by having him read the papers and get ready to report separately to you at another time).

In the light of Bob’s and Dean’s feeling, however, I now recommend we keep this meeting small. After you have had a chance to get your own thinking clear on the broad outlines of the problem, we can bring in Raborn, Wheeler, Thompson, and others in a later meeting for more intense discussion of a specific set of recommendations. My personal, private opinion is that both Rusk and McNamara are too diffident and that it would help you to have a few more people in the meeting. But it is a fact that they feel as they do, and this feeling will govern their effectiveness in a meeting.3

McG. B.
  1. Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Memos to the President, McGeorge Bundy, Vol. XII. Secret.↩
  2. Documents 38–41.↩
  3. Two options were typed below Bundy’s initials: “OK, Keep the meeting small” and “Speak to me.” The President checked the first.↩