373. Editorial Note
On May 5, President Diem and his party arrived in Honolulu and began a 21-day visit to the United States. After stopping in San Francisco, Diem arrived in Washington on May 8 and took part in a series of ceremonial functions and substantive discussions with high-level members of the United States Government. On May 12, Diem left Washington for New York where he visited Maryknoll Seminary and New York City and Seton Hall University in New Jersey. On May 14, Diem traveled to Detroit and on to Michigan State University where he was awarded an honorary degree. Diem then traveled to Knoxville, Tennessee, Los Angeles, and back to Hawaii on May 20, from where he departed for Saigon.
Included in Diem’s party were Nguyen Huu Chau, Secretary for Interior and Secretary of State at the Presidency; Tran Le Quang, Secretary of State for Public Works and Communications; General Tran Van Don, Chief of Staff of the General Staff and senior aide-de-camp to Diem; Huynh Van Diem, Director General of Planning; and Vu Van Thai, Administrator General of Foreign Aid. An official American party traveled with Diem and included the United States Chief of Protocol and the new American Ambassador to Vietnam, Elbridge Durbrow.
Extensive briefing material on the visit is in Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, International Meetings, Diem Visit, 55–57; in Department of State, FE Files: Lot 60 D 514, Ngo Dinh Diem; and ibid., Conference Files: Lot 62 D 181, CF 887. The latter lot file also contains the most comprehensive and best organized record of the substantive discussions of Diem and his party with United States officials while in Washington.