225. Telegram From the Embassy in Vietnam to the Department of State1
4969. 1. Uncle2 saw nephew at Go Dau Ha in Tay Ninh Province yesterday. Arrangements were made for uncle to take our man to Can Tho on “Monday or Tuesday”3 at a point near the airport. The exact place will be given to uncle when he goes to Go Dau Ha on Saturday. On that day, uncle will meet nephewʼs son who will give him exact time and place and will then come back to Saigon with him.
2. On arriving in Saigon, son will give letter to our man at our manʼs house on Sunday morning. The letter will be signed by the nephew in his official capacity as president of the organization. Our man does not know what will be in the letter.
3. But he is sure that it will not impede further action since it is understood that our man will go to Can Tho on Monday or Tuesday to “pick up” nephew.
4. Comment: It becomes urgent to decide where nephew should be taken. He is understandably concerned about his security as regards the GVN. Unless you can think of something better, I plan to have nephew [Page 617] met at Can Tho by a CAS plane of sufficient size and arrange to take him and his party to Chu Lai, which is an all American base, and from where I suggest he be flown to Okinawa [less than 1 line of source text not declassified].
5. Upon reflection, I think this is better than flying him to Guam or taking him out to a carrier. Obviously we are honor bound to get him out of the country immediately.
6. Other questions which arise are:
- When do you divulge this?
- When do we tell GVN?
- And what do we tell them? End comment.
7. It is expected that the son will be staying at our manʼs house in Saigon as a “gesture of good faith.”
8. Our man has suggested that we would be generous with money and personal security. Nephew has said that he would eventually like to return to South Viet-Nam and take part in politics.
9. Please advise receipt this wire and give me any advice or instructions.4
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, POL 30 VIET S/Thrush. Secret; Immediate; Nodis; Thrush. The source text does not give the time of transmission; the telegram was received at 4:16 a.m. Rostow forwarded the text of the telegram to the President at 11 a.m. on September 1, under cover of a memorandum stating that “we should keep our fingers crossed; but this could be good news.” (Johnson Library, National Security File, Country File, Vietnam, Box 143, Thrush)↩
- Nguyen Huu Thoʼs “uncle,” Nguyen Huu An. For more information on this operation, see paragraphs 4–9 of Document 204 and footnote 3 thereto.↩
- September 5 or 6.↩
- The Department of State replied in telegram 39769, September 1, approving the plan set forth in paragraph 4 and providing guidance for informing Ky and revealing the defection publicly. (Department of State, Central Files, POL 30 VIET S/Thrush) On September 5 Rostow forwarded three additional Thrush telegrams to the President (5245 and 5246 from Saigon and 41139 to Saigon, September 5), noting in his covering memorandum that “the bird is not yet in hand; but he hasnʼt retreated to the bush either.” In a memorandum of September 9, Rostow informed the President that “Uncle, who has been trying to arrange Liberation Front leaderʼs defection, was picked up by South Vietnamese security men on the morning of the 7th” for apparently unrelated reasons and was still being detained. (Johnson Library, National Security File, Country File, Vietnam, Box 143, Thrush)↩