Office of the Historian

54. Notes of Meeting1

Washington, January 29, 1966, 12:45–1:15 p.m.

PRESENT

  • President, Vice President, Rusk, Goldberg, Bundy, Moyers, and Valenti

Rusk: Itʼs up to you and me, Arthur, to draft a first class resolution to the Security Council.

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President: Let me tell you my views. I was against the first pause, and the second pause. It has created a situation of doubt. I donʼt want to fail to explore every possible avenue. I donʼt want to fail the men out there.

After the 12-hour and the 30-hour truce and the Popeʼs message2—I decided on the pause.

We should write the Pope, encourage him—we must figure out what to do in reporting to the UN—in accordance with SEATO Treaty.

What can we ask the UN to do? I want the diplomats to keep moving now.

  • First, letter to the Pope.
  • Second, a report to the UN.
  • Third, how can we keep the initiatives going? Donʼt want to be constantly reacting to Ho.

Goldberg: We have already good reporting on our peace efforts.

Two other moves:

1. Go to Security Council. I favor going because it is demonstration of desire for solution. But donʼt think it will get anywhere. Whatever you do there are risks. Wilson did it cleverly. He presented the resolution. If the resolution did go far, we still have enough strength to defeat a resolution we donʼt want.

Rusk: The Japanese are dying to do something for peace, so they will be eager.

President: This afternoon and tomorrow figure out what we need to do to emphasize peace.

Goldberg: Our friends will tell us not to go, but we shouldnʼt let them rule us. The dominant theme is disengagement between us and the Soviets.

President: Iʼve played out my pause—not from 115 countries have I gotten anything. I want you men to evolve for me political and peace moves—initiatives of my own.

  • —Letter to Pope.
  • —Report to UN—and advocate peace.

Because I certify that the Fulbrights and the Morses will be under the table and the hard liners will take over—unless we take initiatives.

I can see lot of things developing in the future to distress us. So let us keep peace emphasis on.

  1. Source: Johnson Library, Meeting Notes File. No classification marking. Valenti took the notes. The meeting was held in the Presidentʼs office.↩
  2. See footnote 7, Document 3.↩