Office of the Historian

125. Letter From the Secretary of State to the Deputy Secretary of Defense (Gilpatric)1

Washington, August 30, 1961.

Dear Ros: I would like to acknowledge your letters of July 32 and August 173 dealing with the level of Vietnamese Armed Forces.

I am pleased that the increase from a 150,000 to a 170,000 man force level appears to be moving ahead of schedule and may be completed in November. Concerning the subsequent increase from 170,000 to 200,000, I have noted the President’s suggestion in his letter of August 4 [5] to President Diem4 that before increasing the level from 170,000 to 200,000 the two governments should be satisfied that there exists an agreed geographically phased strategic plan for bringing the Viet Cong under control, that the training and use of these 30,000 additional men will be based on such a plan, and that the rate of increase will be phased to Vietnamese absorptive capacities.

Your letter of August 17 states that a force level of 200,000 men appears adequate to the Defense Department for the foreseeable future. In the best of circumstances, the 200,000 man level will probably not be reached until May or June 1962. Since this is so far in the future and due to the main threats faced by VietNam, I propose that the question of a further increase above 200,000 men [Page 289] be carefully reviewed by the Viet-Nam Task Force during January 1962. Their recommendations should be based on the situation then existing in Viet-Nam and in Southeast Asia. A recommendation made then would still allow time for preparation, if it should be decided to support a further increase above 200,000.

It is most satisfying to read of the recent victories of the Vietnamese Armed Forces. I hope they will be able to maintain their initiative and that their victories will be followed by increasingly effective civic action.

Sincerely yours,

Dean
  1. Source: Department of State, S/S-NSC Files: Lot 72 D 316, NSAM’s. Secret. Drafted by Wood.↩
  2. Document 52.↩
  3. In this letter Gilpatric wrote that the Department of Defense considered a force of 200,000 adequate for the foreseeable future. (Department of State, Central Files, 751K.5-MSP/8-1761)↩
  4. Document 114.↩