Office of the Historian

326. Telegram From the Central Intelligence Agency Station in Saigon to the Agency1

Saigon, August 25, 1964.

The following is dated August 25 for your background use.

1.
Ambassador Taylor had long meeting with General Khanh afternoon 25 August which is being reported in considerable detail in Embtel 555 to Department of State.2 After you have read that telegram, you will note that Khanh, even if his most optimistic views obtain, has in effect put his government completely in the hands of Tri Quang, and by so doing has similarly bound over to Tri Quang’s safekeeping our own government’s equity, commitment, and policy in this country.
2.
The alternatives to Khanh’s continuing in normal power would seem to be, at this point:
a.
The reappearance of Big Minh again as a figurehead nominally leading a government acceptable to Tri Quang.
b.
Rejection of the Buddhist demands by a new junta headed by Khiem, with further domestic convulsions to follow.
c.
Some other kind of impasse with results difficult to anticipate.

In any event, a new and dangerous period has begun, and the effects of the current upheavals have not yet shown themselves in terms of popular or military morale, but the prognosis of [on?] this side is not optimistic.

  1. Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Vietnam Country File, Cables, Vol. XVI. Secret. Neither the time of transmission nor receipt is legible on the source text. The CIA sent copies to the White House for Thomson at 10:39 a.m., to the Department of State for Forrestal, and to DIA for Carroll. The source text is the White House copy.↩
  2. Document 325.↩