327. Memorandum of Senator Mike Mansfield1
At the Leadership meeting this morning, the President was quite optimistic about settling the Dominican situation but very pessimistic about Viet Nam. He said the Joint Chiefs and others within his circle have advocated the bombing of Hanoi and he has stalled them off for a week, at least, because he wants to wait until Taylor gets back and get his recommendations, and also because he fears this would bring China into the struggle. He said that this would create, almost literally, a Cuba for China and I agreed with him.
He said that there are no indications of any feelers from the other side, that the Russians are shipping a lot of stuff, some of which is getting through to North Viet Nam but the Chinese are holding up a good deal of the material. He said we haven’t got many more targets left to bomb, that, in fact, they got most of them on the first strike and that the difficult period was now beginning with the monsoons.
Senator Long spoke up and said we have to face up to the $64.00 question and bomb China. I said as emphatically as I could, “I disagree with you completely and absolutely.”
The President then turned to another subject.
After watching the blast-off and a discussion of a few legislative matters, I started to leave and the President said, “When Taylor gets back I want to talk to you about that area.” I said I would be delighted and left.2
- Source: University of Montana, Mansfield Library, Mansfield Papers, Series 13, Box 69, Vietnam. Confidential. The meeting began at 10:39 a.m. Attending were the President, Vice President, O’Brien, Reedy, Valenti, and the following Congressional Democratic leaders: Senators Mansfield and Long, Speaker McCormack, and Representatives Albert and Boggs. Mansfield left at 11:43 a.m., along with McCormack and Albert. The Vice President and O’Brien left at 11:50, and Long and Boggs stayed until 11:55. Information on time and attendance is taken from the President’s Daily Diary at the Johnson Library.↩
- An additional sentence is handwritten at the bottom of the page: “He also mentioned the possibility of sending up another Resolution—along lines of Javits’ suggestion—if the decision was to go ahead.”↩