229. Personal Notes of a Meeting With President Johnson1
P[resident] discusses press conference (he held one at about 5 without advance notice to anyone)2 & off record meeting with them. No great decisions to be discussed.
Rusk spells out his view—which is 4 forms of Northern withdrawal 1 end of infil[tration] men—2 end of infil supplies—3 end of control—4 withdrawal of troops put in from North. Max needs to discuss w/Quat. How to make pressure w/o reaching flash point.3
LBJ: No harm in 3 Power talks but great harm if they tell anyone they are acting for us.
McG.B: We may find it hard to get—so how hard do we get tied on to it.
LBJ: We can’t but we must ask for it.
MDT: A hardnosed position is very
DR: Not sure that Hanoi can deliver on cessation.
John McCone—neither is he—a substantial reduction is possible
P[resident]. If we can first get our feet on their neck. Rural electrification—Brotherhood Operation.
President full of determination—we have set our hand to wheel. Get plenty more targets—damn many planes trying to find ‘em. Hold out promised land.
Payin’ enough money—payin’ enough information—we got to find em & kill em. Saturday report.
Wheeler: 12 week program keeps away from MIGs. Para 5,4JCS do not agree. We are losing the war out there. JCS want one Marine division, one Army division, one ROK division. Lots of problems—foreign mainly white troops.
[Page 512]LBJ: Have we exhausted all the possibilities with foreign5 Filipino forces?
Wheeler: 1 div[ision] ROKs—1 Bn Aussies—1 RCT Fil[ipino]s—Thais no. (helping in Laos)—no combat troops w/o U.S. combat troops.
We got a commitment there.6
Are we liable to get Chinese? DRV?6
1. Effective margin. 2. proof of purpose. 3. deterrent to escalate. 4. power base if deterrent fails. 5. important negotiating point.
Wheeler asks tentative decision.
3 divi[sion]s—logistical, political & oper probs solved.
Decision—need and, be to prepare.
Reserves
—You do not need them for 3 div[ision] move.7
—You do need them for strategic reserve.
McNamara—no decision today.
Rusk—no decision today.
They6 should be ready.
Change in Marine mission.8
53 Point.9
Action NSC.10
- Source: Johnson Library, Papers of McGeorge Bundy. No classification marking. The notes were handwritten by McGeorge Bundy for his personal use and were not an official record of the meeting. Bundy lists the following participants: The President, Rusk, McNamara, McCone, Vance, Wheeler, McNaughton, Taylor, William Bundy, and McGeorge Bundy. The time is taken from the President’s Daily Diary at the Johnson Library, which indicates that the President was out of the meeting room from 6:43 to 7 p.m. The President’s Daily Diary mistakenly identifies the meeting as an official NSC meeting; the attendance list in the Daily Diary is actually a list of those who attended the NSC meeting on April 2. No other record of the discussion at this meeting has been found, but for records of the decisions, see Documents 230 and 242.↩
- President Johnson went to the White House theater at 4:35 p.m. for the taped delivery of a speech on his message to Congress on education and then held an “impromptu unannounced press conference” until 5:20. (Johnson Library, President’s Daily Diary)↩
- The notes imply but do not indicate explicitly that the last two sentences were Rusk’s.↩
- Apparently a reference to paragraph 5 of Document 228.↩
- The word “foreign” is written above “Filipino.”↩
- The notes do not indicate who was speaking.↩
- The notes do not indicate who was speaking.↩
- Presumably a reference to the three divisions requested by Wheeler.↩
- The notes do not indicate who was speaking.↩
- See paragraph 7, Document 242.↩
- Presumably a reference to the 41-and 12-point programs discussed at the meeting. See paragraphs 1 and 3, Document 242.↩
- The NSC met the next day and a National Security Action Memorandum was issued on April 6; see Documents 231 and 242.↩