Office of the Historian

275. Memorandum of a Telephone Conversation Between the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense (McNamara)1

Washington, August 4, 1964, 11:10 a.m.

TELEPHONE CALL FROM SECRETARY McNAMARA

M said there was a cable [at] 9:362 our time reporting 3 unidentified boats and 3 unidentified aircraft approaching the destroyers; they had just had a phone call from Sharp that the destroyer reported under torpedo attack. M had told the President we were working out retaliatory measures. M asked if Sec could come over as they had all the charts etc. Sec said he would be there in about 10 minutes.

  1. Source: Department of State, Rusk Files: Lot 72 D 192, Telephone Conversations. No classification marking. Transcribed by Proctor.↩
  2. Presumably message 041336Z. (Ibid., Central Files, POL 27 VIET S) See Document 272.↩