Office of the Historian

223. Telegram From the Embassy in Vietnam to the Department of State1

Saigon, July 17, 1963, 11 a.m.

95. CINCPAC for POLAD. Reference: Department’s telegram 81.2 In confused situation here, believe I should state my present views on basic issue involved before possible decisions taken Washington regarding “disassociation” or other public statement changing US official [Page 494] position. My view is that Buddhist agitation is now predominantly controlled by activists and radical elements aimed at the overthrow of GVN. It may or may not be deliberately connected with coup plots by military officers, but Buddhists almost certainly aware of these.

This is said without condoning Diem’s failure to meet the problem in a timely and politically realistic way. (Report just received on what may be some forward movement by him will follow soonest.)3 In present circumstances, believe US Government should take no immediate action to change balance of its position, even though I realize press reports of what appear to be repressive police actions today will generate a good deal of heat.4

Nolting
  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, SOC 14-1 S VIET. Secret; Operational Immediate Limit Distribution. Repeated to CINCPAC.↩
  2. In telegram 81 to Saigon, July 16, the Department asked, inter alia, for the Embassy’s assessment of whether, in light of the demonstration before the Ambassador’s residence and other Buddhist gestures looking for U.S. support, radical and activist elements might be assuming control of the Buddhist leadership. (Ibid.)↩
  3. Document 224.↩
  4. The Embassy reported, in telegram 96 from Saigon, July 17, that a series of Buddhist demonstrations in and around Saigon that morning had twice led the police to take demonstrators away in trucks to the outskirts of the city. At Giac Minh Pagoda in Cholon, the police action involved violence: “US eyewitnesses report that without any apparent provocation from crowd, police kicked, slugged and clubbed bonzes and la)r people and loaded them forcibly in trucks. Beatings continued while people on floors of trucks. Police then proceeded strip loud speaker and banners from pagoda and sealed off pagoda with barbed wire.” (Department of State, Central Files, SOC 14-1 S VIET)↩