Office of the Historian

382. Memorandum From Marshall Wright of the National Security Council Staff to the President’s Special Assistant (Rostow)1

Washington, September 26, 1968.

SUBJECT

  • Policy toward Laos

The attached draft cable originated in DOD.2 Dick Steadman distributed it recently to the Interagency group which meets with Bill Bundy.

[Page 745]

DOD is arguing that we should mount now a broad and concerted program to bring about another meeting of the Laos Conference of 1962 as part of any settlement of Vietnam.

Bill Bundy’s initial reaction was to brush the whole thing aside as “premature.” Unless there is some support for the DOD initiative I suspect the whole thing will die without more ado.

The guts of the DOD suggestion is that we start now to prepare the ground with the Soviet Union and with various Asian countries for the re-affirmation of the Laos Accords of 1962, and that we persuade Souvanna Phouma to get out in front on this effort. I think you will find the cable interesting. Would you like to see this pursued, or shall we just let nature take its course?

Marshall
  1. Source: Johnson Library, National Security Files, Country File, Laos, Vol. XVIII, Memos 1/68–1/69. No classification marking.↩
  2. Not found attached.↩