Office of the Historian

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

Washington, July 7, 1965, 11 a.m.

SUBJECT

  • Telegrams on Negotiations with Viet Cong and Hanoi
1.
I attach outgoing and incoming telegrams to Saigon2 on the subject of negotiations with the Viet Cong and with Hanoi. The sum of their meaning is that Taylor and Johnson vigorously oppose any informal approach to either the Viet Cong or Hanoi at this time. They believe that such approaches are premature because of the tough summer ahead. They think they are dangerous because of the effect of a leak on the Saigon government. They think that overeagerness to negotiate “will nullify our past and present efforts to convince the Communists that we have the will and determination to turn the tide against them sooner or later.”
2.
This reaction was largely predictable, but its strength is somewhat surprising. Moreover, conversations with Lodge indicate to me that he has exactly the same view.
3.
But the very same day we have a further message from Saigon reporting a contact made by a southern Catholic [less than 1 line of source text not declassified].3 [less than 1 line of source text not declassified] asserts that there is a whole wing of the Liberation Front that is against Hanoi and in favor of some compromise solution. Since he is an influential and respected Catholic, the Embassy takes his view more seriously than other earlier reports of division in the Viet Cong. [less than 1 line of source text not declassified] is exploring these divisions on his own, and the Embassy appears to be quite willing to keep in touch with him. This may mark the bare beginning of contacts among Vietnamese in the South that could be helpful.
McG. B.
  1. Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Memos to the President, McGeorge Bundy, Vol. XII. Top Secret.↩
  2. Attached were telegrams 41 and 42 to Saigon (Documents 46 and 47) and telegram 41 from Saigon (Document 50).↩
  3. Telegram 44 from Saigon, July 6. (Department of State, Central Files, POL 15 VIET S)↩