Office of the Historian

419. Memorandum From the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs (Merchant) to the Acting Secretary of State1

Washington, October 6, 1960.

SUBJECT

  • Laos

Following a meeting on another subject in my office this morning with Messrs. Dulles, Gray, Irwin and Parrott, the subject of Laos came up. I read to them under pledge of confidence Vientiane’s 680 and 681

(latter Top Secret), both of Oct. 5.2 I also loaned to Jack Irwin my copy of Vientiane’s 680 at his request on his pledge that he would show it only to Tom Gates and General Lemnitzer, make no copies of it, and return it to me.

We requested Mr. Irwin to secure immediately Defense’s best military estimate, based on the latest field reports from all their PEO’s, of the current military capability of Phoumi’s force, including Order of Battle, state of morale, etc. Mr. Irwin agreed to obtain this and will endeavor to have it tomorrow. [3 lines of source text not declassified]

It was further agreed that no definitive decision could be taken with respect to any new course of policy and action in Laos until after we had received Ambassador Brown’s report of his October 6 meeting with the King at Luang Prabang. It was further explicitly agreed that any decision to give Phoumi exclusive, massive support should be made by the President in the knowledge what the alternatives were and what risks were attached to each possible course of action.

I have informed Mr. Steeves of the foregoing and requested him to start preliminary drafting on a paper which could be used to place the issue before the President, recognizing that this draft cannot be completed until we have received and considered Ambassador Brown’s report on his interview with the King. Mr, Steeves and I also agreed that, prior to presenting the matter to the President (which may be necessary in the next 48 or 72 hours), we should have a small meeting probably limited to yourself, Tom Gates, Lem, Allen Dulles, Irwin, Steeves, and myself.3

  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 751J.00/10–660. Secret; Eyes Only.↩
  2. Documents 416 and 417.↩
  3. The following note appears at the bottom of the source text in an unknown hand: “Meeting set up for 2:30 Friday [October 7] in Gates’ office with Gates, Irwin, Merchant, probably Allen Dulles and Lemnitzer, and anyone you wish to bring. Gates wants to keep the meeting small.” See Document 421.↩