Office of the Historian

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

Saigon, September 13, 1964—12 p.m.

836. CINCPAC for POLAD. I have just spent one and one-half hours with Phat and another hour and one-half with “Big” Minh. Khanh has just called from airport and asked urgently to see me now so following is briefest possible summary.

Phat very confused with vague ideas of big committee of 100 or so with an executive committee to run govt in place of PriMin for four month period end of which general elections would be held. Claims support from most military elements except I Corps, admits that Ky, Air Force, is sitting on fence. I was tough with him, made it clear thought his ideas were harebrained, and we were still supporting Khanh as PriMin of recognized govt. Talked hard about necessity avoiding clashes between ARVN forces, leaving areas in 4th uncovered for VC, etc., etc. He promised that he would do all possible avoid clashes and would not initiate any attacks.

Minh was in low sprite but made it emphatically clear that as much as he disliked Khanh, he felt Khanh was not at fault for much of what had happened. He thought Duc, Phat and company were mad in what they were attempting to do, had no support from population or anyone else, expected they would get no support and it was important US make clear it was not supporting. Said he had and would continue to do all he could to discourage them. We both agreed that finding way out was, however, extremely difficult with Duc, Phat and [less than 1 line of source text not declassified] on one hand rightly fearing Khanh’s vengeance if they now backed down and other hand Khanh could not appear to be soft in disciplining army. We both agreed that we would work toward restoration status quo, although he felt best solution would be for both Khanh and Duc/Phat to leave country. More detailed accounts follow septel.2

Johnson
  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, POL 27 VIET S. Secret; Flash. Repeated to CIA, the Department of Defense, the White House, and CINCPAC. The time of transmission is presumably midnight, September 12/13, because the cable was received at 12:52 p.m., September 13.↩
  2. Telegram 840, September 14, 2 a.m., reported on the interview with Phat; telegram 841, September 14, 3 a.m., reported on the meeting with Minh. (Ibid.) The latter is published in Declassified Documents, 1979, 94F.↩