93. Memorandum From the President’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bundy) to President Johnson1
Detailed analysis of the June ninth air strike in Laos2 reveals that half of our planes found and attacked the assigned target, which was a fort near Xieng Khouang, but other half dropped their bombs on a different fort about ten miles away near the town of Phong Savan, as ChiComs have charged.3
The planes flew together in two flights of four to the target area. The first four planes found and attacked Xieng Khouang. The second four planes lost sight of the first four, orbited twice, found what they thought was the target, and dropped their bombs. It is now clear that the second flight attacked a fortified area but not the assigned target.
A special U–2 flight will photograph the entire area today if weather permits. Results will be available in Washington over the week end.
The discovery that the second four planes had attacked a target different than the assigned target was made when the air photographs taken of Xieng Khouang after the strike failed to reveal where fourteen of the twenty-five 750-pound bombs had fallen. Confirmation was obtained by questioning the pilots.
- Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Memos to the President, McGeorge Bundy, Vol. V. Top Secret. There is an indication on the source text that the President saw it.↩
- A memorandum from Carroll to McGeorge Bundy, June 12, provided a re-evaluation of the June 9 F–100 strike against the fortified anti-aircraft artillery position at Xieng Khouang. (Ibid., Country File, Laos, Reconnaissance Flights, Vol. I, 6/6/64–6/16/64)↩
- China accused the United States of “wanton bombing and strafing” of Khang Khay and of wounding five and killing one member of the Chinese economic and cultural mission there, as well as destroying the mission’s quarters. The text of the Chinese complaint to the Co-Chairmen of the Geneva Conference on Laos, June 13, is in American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1964, pp. 933–934.↩