Office of the Historian

11. Memorandum of Telephone Conversation Between the Under Secretary of State (Ball) and the President’s Special Assistant (Moyers)1

Washington, June 21, 1965, 3:30 p.m.

Moyers said the Pres had read the V-N memo2 over the weekend at Camp David and they had talked about it at lunch today. The Pres agrees in substance with most of the memo—one or two slight changes possibly.

Following are notes taken by Moyers as stated by the Pres: “I don’t think I should go over 100,000 but think I should go to that number and explain it. I want George to work for the next 90 days—to work up what is going to happen after the monsoon season. I am not worried about riding off in the wrong direction. I agree that it might build-up bit by bit. I told McNamara that I would not make a decision on this and not to assume that I am willing to go overboard on this—I ain’t. If there is no alternative, the fellow here with the program is the way I will probably go.”

Ball asked Moyers if he had mentioned to the President about his request for a legal memo re V-N.3 Moyers had forgotten to ask the President about it but said he would this afternoon.

  1. Source: Johnson Library, Papers of George Ball, Vietnam I. No classification marking. Transcribed by Jacquelyn Taylor in Ball’s office.↩
  2. Document 7.↩
  3. See Document 24.↩