284. Editorial Note
At the end of August 1962, Vietnamese Secretary of State at the Presidency Thuan informed the Embassy in Saigon that he would be in Washington for the meeting of the International Monetary Fund, beginning September 17. By August 27, the Department of State realized that Thuan was coming to the United States chiefly to discuss Vietnam with United States officials. (Memorandum from Heavner to Harriman, August 27; Department of State, Vietnam Working Group Files: Lot 66 D 193, Thuan Visit)
Subsequent exchanges of telegrams between Washington and Saigon revealed that Thuan would be accompanied by Buu Hoan, Head of the Research Department of the National Bank of Vietnam; Yu Quoc Thuc, Dean of the Saigon University Law School; and William Trueheart. Following a meeting with Admiral Felt at Honolulu, Thuan arrived in Washington on September 16, attended the Fund opening session on the following day, and met with various Senators and Representatives on September 18. On September 19, he discussed the Vietnam situation with Dean Rusk and U. Alexis Johnson at noon and then went to the White House for conversations with Michael V Forrestal and Carl Kaysen. The following day, he spent the morning at the Central Intelligence Agency, then met Averell Harriman at noon, before completing his talks with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Lemnitzer and Secretary of Defense McNamara. On September 21, he talked with Walt Rostow, Chairman of the Policy Planning Council, before discussing the press situation in Saigon with Don Wilson, Deputy Director of the United States Information Service.
Thuan spent September 22-24 in New York before returning to Washington on September 25 for meetings with the President and Attorney General. Documentation on the scheduling for the trip is ibid., Central File 033.51K11; and Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Vietnam Country Series.
Memoranda of Thuanʼs conversations with Rusk, Harriman, Wilson, and President Kennedy are printed here. A report on the conversation with Admiral Felt, largely devoted to the Vietnamese war effort, was transmitted in telegram 190056Z from Honolulu, September 19. (Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Vietnam Country Series) A brief memorandum of Thuanʼs conversation with the Attorney General is in Department of State, Central Files, 751K.00/9-2562. For a brief summary of several of the other meetings, see Document 295.