50. Memorandum for the Record1
Washington, April 27, 1964.
SUBJECT
- Breakfast Meeting at the White House—22 April 1964
ATTENDED BY
- The President, Secretaries Rusk and McNamara, Mr. McCone, Mr. Bundy, Senators Mansfield, Humphrey, Dirksen, Kuchel, Speaker McCormack, Boggs, Halleck, Arends, and one or two others
- 1.
- The President spoke at some length on the South Vietnamese policies, reading a letter of President Eisenhower to presumably Diem in October, 1954, indicating present policy was identical with that outlined by Eisenhower. There was some criticism on the part of Halleck, Dirksen and several other Senators because of complaints received from their constituents and American guests. The President then spoke of the proposed cutback in the special nuclear materials and turned the meeting over to Rusk who then reported on his trip as follows:
- 2.
- Rusk summarized the SEATO meeting, emphasizing unanimity with the exception of Franceʼs dissension and the communiqué2 which condemned North Vietnam for their aggression. He felt the SEATO meeting had gone very well, that France would not withdraw from SEATO.3 Rusk then described in detail his impressions of South Vietnam, his confidence in Khanh, his feeling that the tide had turned, and that he was confident that actions taken by Khanh since the McNamara visit are now being felt and we could expect better news in the future. He spoke briefly of the Laotian situation. He did not touch on his talks with Chiang Kai-shek.
[Here follows discussion unrelated to Southeast Asia.]
- Source: Johnson Library, John McCone Memoranda of Meetings with the President, 4/3/64–5/20/64. No classification marking. The memorandum was dictated by McCone and transcribed by his secretary.↩
- See footnote 3, Document 48.↩
- A report on the Ninth SEATO Council session, April 13–15, which reflects in more detail this optimistic view of the meeting, is in circular airgram CA–11512, May 6. (Department of State, Central Files, DEF 4 SEATO)↩