291. Memorandum From the President’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bundy) to Secretary of State Rusk1
Up to this moment, the knowledge of the President’s plan for a trial pause has been restricted to the President himself and to those addressed in this memorandum.
The President now approves the extension of this circle to include in the State Department Under Secretary Ball, Ambassador Thompson and Ambassador Unger; in the Defense Department Deputy Secretary Vance, Assistant Secretary McNaughton, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and in the White House Mr. Bromley Smith. The President has further approved most private transmission of the existence of his plan to Prime Minister Wilson, Prime Minister Pearson, and Prime Minister Menzies, with explicit caution to each of these Heads of Government against revealing the substance of the President’s plan at this time to anyone but his Foreign Minister. The President has himself informed Ambassador Taylor and Ambassador Johnson in Saigon, and he now authorizes a message to Ambassador Taylor instructing him to inform General Westmoreland.2
The President has consulted fully with Prime Minister Quat, who has expressed his understanding of the President’s plan.3
The President has authorized the Secretary of State to convey appropriate messages with respect to this plan to the Government of the Soviet Union4 and the Government of North Vietnam.5
[Page 635]The President has authorized the Secretary of Defense to carry out the military aspects of this plan.
Beyond this point, the President has given no authorization whatever for any discussion or disclosure of this plan by anyone at any time with anyone inside or outside the Government. The President has directed me to emphasize the importance of complete discretion among those who are authorized to be informed, and he asks me to impress upon the Secretary of Defense and upon Mr. William Bundy, in Secretary Rusk’s absence, the importance of insuring complete discretion in the State and Defense Departments. Needless to say, he has given me a similar caution with respect to the White House, and he omits this warning in the case of Admiral Raborn simply because he expects that no other office of the CIA will be informed at this time.
This operation needs a code word and the best that I can think of is Holiday.
- Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Memos to the President, McGeorge Bundy, Vol. X. Top Secret; Eyes Only. Also sent to McNamara, Raborn, and William Bundy.↩
- See Documents 288 and 292.↩
- See Document 289.↩
- See Document 293.↩
- See Document 298.↩
- Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.↩