85. Notes of Meeting1
PRESENT
- President
- Goldberg
- McNamara
- Clifford
- Busby
- Valenti
Clifford: 1. Do not think it advisable to go to UN with resolution now. Don’t need this to re-inforce peaceful intentions. Inconsistent with going in with additional troops.
2. Stop talking about Vietnam—on part of President, Rusk, Harriman, etc. No talking about where and why we are there. Don’t think they are going to be forced to table by any UN proposal. Underplay Vietnam until January.
3. Both above based on this one: Don’t believe we can win in SVN. If we send in 100,000 more, the NVN will meet us. If the NVN run out of men, the Chinese will send in volunteers. Russia and China don’t intend for us to win the war. If we don’t win, it is a catastrophe. If we lose 50,000+ it will ruin us. Five years, billions of dollars, 50,000 men, it is not for us.
At end of monsoon, quietly probe and search out with other countries—by moderating our position—to allow us to get out. Can’t see anything but catastrophe for my country. A resolution in the UN with dramatic debate is bad for us.
President: (reading from letter)2VN is not of intrinsic value—If
There is no high principle involved.
Basic issue is not to get thrown out under fire.
Political questions are what we make them.
- 1.
- Instruct officials to stop saying all humankind is at stake.
- 2.
- Stop saying we are going to pacify the country.
- 3.
- Patience—pressure—quietly marking areas we can hold. Hold these for years if need be. Make a safe haven.
- 4.
- Vietcong cannot attack these places frontally.
- 5.
- Gradually stop bombings north and south. Maximum attention to it which is wrong.
- 6.
- Keep offer of negotiations open.
- Source: Johnson Library, Meeting Notes File, Box 1. No classification marking. The notes were originally handwritten by Valenti and later transcribed. The meeting was held in Aspen Lodge.↩
- Document 79.↩