Office of the Historian

243. Memorandum of Telephone Conversation Between the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs (Harriman) and the Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs (Hilsman)1

Washington, August 1, 1963, 9:55 a.m.

WAH told RH that he was disturbed about the reports of Nolting’s statement on the Buddhists2—WAH said he ought to be recalled at once. RH said he couldn’t agree more but in his defense he ought to say that it was distorted and taken out of context. WAH said why should he make public statements and RH replied he shouldn’t. WAH said he thought when he leaves he ought to be instructed not to make any public statement—or on second thought WAH said that might be awkward but should clear his statement first in the Dept. WAH also said since he was due to come home about the 13th it was probably not necessary to recall him. RH said he would draft a cable.3

  1. Source: Library of Congress, Harriman Papers, Telephone Conversations. Transcribed by Eleanor G. McGann of Harriman’s staff..↩
  2. In an interview with UPI on July 28, Nolting replied to a question about religious persecution and the Buddhist crisis as follows: “I myself, I say this very frankly, after almost two and one half years here, have never seen any evidence of religious persecution, in fact I have the feeling that there is a great deal of religious toleration among Vietnamese people at all levels.” (Telegram 161 from Saigon, August 1; Department of State, Central Files, SOC-1 S VIET) On July 31, the Inter-Sect Committee for the Defense of Buddhism released a statement taking issue with Nolting’s statement. An open letter to Nolting, August 1, signed by “a group of Vietnamese patriots” and distributed to the news media at Xa Loi Pagoda on August 1, attacked Nolting’s integrity and understanding of the Buddhist situation. Superior Bonze Tien Khiet on behalf of the Inter-Sect Committee sent President Kennedy a telegram protesting Nolting’s statement. Nolting also received a letter from bonze Tam Chau deploring his statement to the UPI correspondent. (Telegrams 156, 159, and 160 from Saigon, July 31, August 1, and August 1, respectively; all Ibid.)↩
  3. The cable, telegram 144 to Saigon, August 1, 7:25 p.m., reads as follows: “Press play here of Buddhist communiqué (Embtel 156) commenting on your statement is, as you can imagine, unfortunate, preserving distortion your actual statement. This raises question of how to handle your farewell remarks, which I presume you could not avoid. What ideas do you have about this? Would appreciate opportunity to comment on planned remarks from Washington vantage point.” (Ibid., POLS VIET-US)↩