316. Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in Vietnam1
784. For Ambassador Lodge from the Secretary. Halberstam article carried New York Times November 13 (full text sent by wireless file) dealing with military coup readers’ feelings regarding General Harkins and different assessments of Vietnamese situation by Harkins and Embassy viewed with serious concern at high levels here. Obvious of course that this type story handicaps effective functioning of Government agencies and complicates problems all of us face in our complex operations relating to Vietnam.
Feel strongly that corrective measures need to be taken in official American community in Saigon to stop this kind of talk with newsmen which only creates internal difficulties within U.S. Government and friction with GVN. While we are aware from previous exchanges with you that it is hard deal with this problem, we regard it of such importance that we request that you re-examine all feasible methods of resolving it to prevent future repetitions.
We leave to your discretion what action to take to offset effects of Halberstam article, and would appreciate your thoughts as to how this might be accomplished.2
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, POL 26 S VIET. Secret; Priority. Drafted by Mendenhall; cleared with Forrestal, Rice, and Manning; and approved by Rusk.↩
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Lodge responded in telegram 1010 from Saigon, November 14, as follows:
“Have not yet seen Halberstam article but heartily agree that kind of story you describe handicaps effective functioning of government agencies.”
He indicated that he would call a country team meeting to urge key members to prevent such news stories, and stated his belief that there were no leaks from the Embassy. He also noted:
“Halberstam has at least twice to my knowledge in the past taken material leaked to the Times in Washington and then sent it back to the U.S. under a Saigon dateline. Do not know whether he has done this in this case.” (Ibid.)
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