Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, Volume XXIII, Congo, 1960–1968

210. Memorandum From the President’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bundy) to President Johnson¹

Washington, August 11, 1964.

The attached memorandum to me from Bill Brubeck gives the up-to-date situation in the Congo as we now see it.²

What is very unclear is how deep the Chinese hand is in the rebel efforts. Harriman thinks it is pretty deep; most of the intelligence community thinks it is more marginal.

Brubeck raises hard questions at the end of his memorandum, and I think that the dominant judgment at the moment is that we ought not go beyond the steps currently in train, and that particularly we should not now plan on sending a Special Forces of U.S. forces—that could not only come if a lot of other people were willing to act, which is not currently the case. The CINC Strike C–130 force is another matter because of its relation to a possible need for evacuation of Americans.

McG. B.³

1. Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Memos to the President, McGeorge Bundy, Vol. 6. No classification marking.
2. Not attached; the reference is presumably to Document 209.
3. Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.