99. Memorandum From the Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs (Bundy) to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Lemnitzer)1

I-16753/61

SUBJECT

  • North Viet Nam

Continued Viet Minh subversive activities in South Viet Nam suggest the desirability of evaluating military measures which the U.S. might institute in reprisal against North Viet Nam. Accordingly, it is requested that the Joint Chiefs of Staff provide their views on the consequences and effectiveness of:

(1)
Maritime control measures against North Viet Nam up to and including a blockade;
(2)
Varying degrees of interdiction-type air and sea patrols (e.g. surface patrols along the coast from the 17th parallel southward, a barrier patrol from the Paracel Islands to the South Viet Nam coast and air patrols across the northern border of South Viet Nam).

These measures, if approved, would supplement those actions recently approved by the President. As you are aware, the President, on 11 May, authorized various actions as listed on pages 4 and 5 of the Task Force Report on “Program of Action to Prevent Communist Domination of South Viet Nam”,2 with the objective of meeting the increased security threat resulting from the situation along the frontier between Laos and Viet Nam. Among these actions is the [Page 234] provision of MAP support for the Vietnamese Junk Force in order to improve the protection against infiltration by sea.

The Task Force Report also indicates that “it will be necessary for CINCPAC’s naval component to assume an active responsibility jointly with the Vietnamese for coastal patrol activities from the Cambodian border to the mouth of the Mekong River.” Increased guerrilla activities may warrant such additional U.S. efforts as indicated above. These air and naval operations against North Viet Nam would be, in a sense, our equivalent of the guerrilla operations which the Viet Minh are conducting in South Viet Nam.

It is requested that your views on the foregoing be made available by 11 August 1961.

William P. Bundy 3
  1. Source: Washington National Records Center, RG 330, OASD/ISA Files: FRC 64 A 2382, North Viet-Nam 1961 000.1. Top Secret. Drafted by J.W. Clinton and Robert H.B. Wade, Director of ISA’s Coordinating Staff for NSC and Collateral Activities. According to Wade’s note on the interoffice control sheet attached to the source text, there was a discussion at the Planning Group luncheon on July 5 of the military problems connected with intervention in Vietnam. During the course of the discussion, the Department of Defense was asked to make a study of the consequences of a naval blockade of North Vietnam.
  2. See footnote 2, Document 51. and Document 42.
  3. Printed from a copy that bears this stamped signature.