V. Raids on the Pagodas and a Possible Coup, August 21-28,
1963:
Martial Law, Lodge’s
Arrival, Responsibility for the Crackdown on the Buddhists, the Cable of
August 24, NSC Subcommittee Meetings on
Vietnam, New Assessments From the Field, U.S. Support of the Coup
261. Telegram From the Embassy in Vietnam to the Department of State
Source: Department of State, Central Files, POL 2-4 S VIEI Secret; Operational Immediate. Repeated Operational Immediate to CINCPAC and Tokyo. Received at 1:28 p.m. Relayed to the White House, CIA, Office of the Secretary of Defense, and the Departments of the Army, Navy, and Air Force. Ambassador Nolting left Saigon on August 15; Ambassador Lodge was in Tokyo en route to Vietnam.
263. Department of State Daily Staff Summary
Source: Department of State, Top Secret and Secret Summaries: Lot 65 D 142. Top Secret; Eyes Only for Designated Recipient. This summary was part of a daily series prepared in the Operations Center of the Department of State and made available to the Secretary of State and other principal officers in the Department.
264. Memorandum From the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (Carroll) to the Secretary of Defense (McNamara)
Source: Washington National Records Center, RG 330, OSD Files: FRC 69 A 3131 Vietnam 381. Secret. A note on the source text indicates McNamara saw this memorandum.
265. Memorandum for the Record by the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s Special Assistant for Counterinsurgency and Special Activities (Krulak)
Source: National Defense University, Taylor Papers, T-172-69. Secret.
266. Memorandum Prepared by the Office of Current Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency
Source: Department of State, Vietnam Working Group Files: Lot 67 D 54, POL 26 Coup Rumors. Secret; No Foreign Dissem.
267. Memorandum From the Acting Secretary of State to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs (Harriman)
Source: Department of State, Central Files, POL 1 S VIET. Secret. Drafted by Ball. An attached note from Ball to Harriman reads as follows: “Averell: I am really worried about how we will establish an effective relationship between Washington and Saigon, now that Cabot is on the spot. I would like very much to talk with you about this and would appreciate it if you would call me when you have read the attached. George” No record of a Ball-Harriman conversation on this matter has been found.
268. Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in Vietnam
Source: Department of State, Central Files, POL 2-4 S VIEI Secret; Operational Immediate. Drafted by Hilsman and Ball and cleared in substance with Ball and Harriman. Repeated to CINCPAC.
269. Telegram From the Embassy in Vietnam to the Department of State
Source: Department of State, Central Files, POL 2-4 S VIET. Secret; Operational Immediate; Limit Distribution. Repeated to CINCPAC.
270. Memorandum From the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Taylor) to the Secretary of State
Source: Department of State, Central Files, POL 27 S VIET Secret; Sensitive. A note on another copy of this memorandum by Chester V. Clifton, Military Aide to the President, indicates that the President saw it. Clifton also wrote the following comments: “Don/anti-Nhu; respected by the Army. Ty in Walter Reed (cancer).” (Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Vietnam Country Series, 8/21/63-8/23/63)
272. Department of State Daily Staff Summary
Source: Department of State, Top Secret and Secret Daily Summaries: Lot 65 D 142. Top Secret; Eyes Only for Designated Recipient.
273. Telegram From the Embassy in Vietnam to the Department of State
Source: Department of State, Central Files, POL 15-1 S VIEI Secret; Operational Immediate; Limit Distribution. Repeated to CINCPAC and relayed upon receipt at the Department of State to the White House. Roger Hilsman, in To Move a Nation, p. 485, describes this cable as “perhaps the most convincing judgment of all” of the reports from Saigon on Vietnamese dissatisfaction with the campaign of Nhu against the Buddhists.
274. Telegram From the Embassy in Vietnam to the Department of State
Source: Department of State, Central Files, SOC 14-1 S VIET. Secret; Operational Immediate; Limit Distribution. Repeated to CINCPAC. Hilsman cites this telegram in To Move a Nation, pp. 484-485, as part of an approach by Vietnamese Generals to American officials.
275. Telegram From the Central Intelligence Agency Station in Saigon to the Agency
Source: Library of Congress, Harriman Papers, Vietnam Policy. Secret. Also sent to Honolulu. The source text is a copy sent by the CIA to the Department of State for Hilsman and Hughes; also sent to the White House for Bundy and to JCS for Krulak. According to a note on the source text, TDCS dissemination of this cable would follow. That report, TDCS DB-3/656,252, August 24, is published in Declassified Documents, 1977, 93C.
276. Telegram From the Embassy in Vietnam to the Department of State
Source: Department of State, Central Files, POL 2-4 S VIET Secret; Operational Immediate; Limit Distribution. Received at 2:05 p.m. Repeated to CINCPAC.
277. Memorandum From the Counselor for Public Affairs of the Embassy in Vietnam (Mecklin) to the Ambassador (Lodge)
Source: Washington National Records Center, RG 306, USIA Files:FRC 68 A 5160, Vietnam Working Group. Secret; Eyes Only.
278. Memorandum From Michael V. Forrestal of the National Security Council Staff to the President
Source: Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Vietnam Country Series, 8/24/63-8/31/63, Memos and Miscellaneous. Top Secret. A note on the source text indicates that this document was taken from the President’s weekend reading, dated August 24.
280. Telegram From Michael V. Forrestal of the National Security Council Staff to the President, at Hyannis Port, Massachusetts
Source: Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Vietnam Country Series 8/24/63-8/31/63, State Cables. Top Secret; Eyes Only. A note on the source text in Clifton’s hand reads: P[resident]—as discussed with Secretary Ball.”
281. Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in Vietnam
Source: Department of State, Har-Van Files, Overthrow of the Diem Government in South Vietnam, 1963. Top Secret; Operational Immediate. Printed also in United States-Vietnam Relations, 1945-1967, Book 12, pp. 536-537 and Declassified Documents, 1975, 321B. Drafted by Hilsman and cleared by Hilsman, Forrestal, and Ball. Approved by Harriman for transmission and classification. The drafting and clearance of this message has occasioned subsequent controversy which is reflected in the memoirs and recollections of some of the principal personalities involved at the time. General Maxwell Taylor stated in Swords and Plowshares, pp. 292-294, that the cable was an “end run” by an anti-Diem faction in Washington including Hilsman, Harriman, and Forrestal. Taylor believed the cable was ill-conceived, confusing, and would never had been approved had Hilsman and his colleagues not taken advantage of the absence from Washington of most of the high-level officials of the administration. Hilsman, in To Move a Nation, pp. 487-488, and in a later oral history interview (Kennedy Library, Oral History Program) maintained that the cable was cleared by the President and all representatives of the relevant agencies.
282. Memorandum for the Record by the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s Special Assistant for Counterinsurgency and Special Activities (Krulak)
Source: National Defense University, Taylor Papers, T-172-69. Top Secret.
283. Telegram From the Commander in Chief, Pacific (Felt) to the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Source: National Defense University, Taylor Papers, Tÿ09172-69. Secret; Priority. Repeated to the Commanders of the U.S. Army, Pacific; U.S. Fleet, Pacific; and Pacific Air Force.
284. Telegram From the Central Intelligence Agency Station in Saigon to the Agency
Source: Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Vietnam Country Series, 8/24/63-8/31/63, CIA Cables. Secret. The CIA sent copies to the White House for Forrestal, to the Department of State for Hughes and Hilsman, and to the Joint Chiefs of Staff for Krulak. The telegram was received at the White House at 10:41 a.m.
285. Telegram From Michael V. Forrestal of the National Security Council Staff to the President, at Hyannis Port, Massachussets
Source: Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Vietnam Country Series, 8/24/63-8/31/63, State Cables. Top Secret; Eyes Only; Operational Immediate. The substantive portion of this telegram is printed in the Pentagon Papers: Gravel Edition, vol. 11, p. 735.
286. Message From the Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Vietnam(Lodge)
Source: Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Vietnam Country Series, 8/24/63-8/31/63, State Cables. Top Secret. Apparently sent via CIA channels to Saigon. The message is unsigned, and there is no time of transmission or receipt on the source text.
287. Voice of America Broadcast
Source: Library of Congress, Harriman Papers, Vietnam Policy. A note on the source text indicates that this was a copy of “VOA 2-One Thirty AM Breakfast Show.” Apparently this is the text of the relevant portion of a prerecording of the 8 a.m. broadcast in Saigon on August 26. In To Move a Nation, p. 489, Hilsman explained that the broadcaster did not check the broadcast against the press guidance (telegram 244 to Saigon; see footnote 7, Document 281), and therefore made the “flat statement” in the last paragraph that the United States might reduce its aid to Vietnam.
288. Telegram From the Embassy in Vietnam to the Department of State
Source: Department of State, Central Files, POL 5 VIET-US. Top Secret; Eyes Only; Operational Immediate. Sent via CIA channels as CAS 0329 from Saigon. The Department of State passed the message to the White House and to the Office of the Secretary of Defense exclusive for McNamara, Gilpatric, Taylor, and Krulak. There is no time of transmission on the source text, but it was received at the Department of State at 3:11 p.m. The source text is not signed.
289. Memorandum for the Record
Source: National Defense University, Taylor Papers, Vietnam, chap. XXIII. Top Secret; Sensitive. Drafted by Krulak. The meeting was held at the White House. A memorandum of conversation of this meeting by Hilsman is in the Kennedy Library, Hilsman Papers, Countries, Vietnam, White House Meetings, State Memcons.
290. Telegram From the Central Intelligence Agency Station in Saigon to the Agency
Source: National Defense University, Taylor Papers, T-172-69. Top Secret. Also printed in summary form in Pentagon Papers: Gravel Edition, vol. 11, pp. 735-736.