Office of the Historian

111. Memorandum From the Acting Assistant Director, Far East, United States Information Agency (Moore) to the Deputy Director (Wilson)1

Washington, February 1, 1963.

SUBJECT

  • Press Relations in Viet-Nam

Governor Harriman said in his staff meeting this morning that General Wheeler would make a very strong report on the sad condition of GVN relations with the press. Governor Harriman has urged the Secretary to make a public statement deploring GVN treatment of press. (At his press conference this morning the Secretary said: “But [Page 289] let me say quite frankly that we have not been satisfied with the opportunities given to the press in Viet-Nam for full and candid coverage of the situation there, and we are discussing this matter from time to time and most urgently with the Government of Viet-Nam.”)2 The Governor continued in substance that we must start calling some of the tunes and Diem must take our advice. This issue good one for test of wills.

Comment: Although a public statement here could make John Mecklin’s idea of unattributed U.S. press briefings3 a matter of direct confrontation with GVN; depending on how it played in Saigon, such a statement could serve only to strengthen Embassy’s hand and put GVN on notice to acquiesce quietly to our projected press program.

The Governor stressed that statement necessary for U.S. consumption.

  1. Source: National Archives, RG 306, DIRCTR Sub Files, 1963–69, Bx 6–29 63–69: Acc: #72A5121, Entry UD WW 257, Box 8, FIELD—Far East (IAF) 1963. Confidential.↩
  2. In addition to this statement, Rusk added: “We can fully understand the difficulties faced by press representatives there and would like to see those dealt with as rapidly as possible, because under those conditions it is not easy to get a balanced picture of the situation. We hope that there could be some improvement, not only in the situation in Viet-Nam but in the availability of information about it in Viet-Nam to representatives of the press.” (Department of State Bulletin, February 18, 1963, p. 238)↩
  3. Mecklin, Counselor for Public Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, made the following proposal in a November 27, 1962, memorandum to Ambassador Nolting: “MACV should begin now to give regular daily briefings to Western newsmen on a non-attribution basis. These in general should be limited to news about activities involving US personnel (which means virtually every action initiated by the GVN), but news of major developments involving only GVN personnel should also be ‘leaked’ at the discretion of MACV. It would be preferable not to advise the GVN formally that such briefings have been started, thus avoiding a direction question of ‘face.’ But if and when the GVN hears about them and inquires, we should simply say the pressure from the US press for adequate information became so intense that we could no longer resist it, and that of course, the briefings will be discontinued once the GVN itself begins doing the job.” The memorandum is printed in Foreign Relations, 1961–1963, vol. II, Vietnam, 1962, Document 322.

    Additionally, in a January 30 memorandum to Murrow, Wilson noted that during the January 17 meeting of the Special Group for Counterinsurgency, whose members included Johnson, Taylor, McCone, Dungan, Murrow, and Bundy (although neither Murrow nor Bundy attended that meeting), Mecklin’s memorandum “was read and discussed at some length” and that “[i]t was the opinion of all of us that Mecklin’s memorandum goes in the right direction.” The memorandum is printed in Foreign Relations, 1961–1963, vol. III, Vietnam, January–August 1963, Document 23. For the minutes of the January 17 meeting, see ibid., Document 14.

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