210. Editorial Note
On August 13, 1966, General Westmoreland flew to the LBJ Ranch in Texas to meet with President Johnson, arriving at 6:24 p.m. He stayed overnight and departed for Honolulu at midday on August 14. (Johnson Library, Presidentʼs Daily Diary) W. Thomas Johnson of the White House staff took informal notes of Westmorelandʼs meeting with the President on August 13, which are ibid., Tom Johnsonʼs Notes of Meetings. On August 14, the President made a statement to news correspondents about his meeting with Westmoreland, and Westmoreland also held a news conference. Transcripts of both are printed in Department of State Bulletin, September 5, 1966, pages 335–338.
In a telegram to General Wheeler reporting on the visit, HWA 2419, August 16, General Westmoreland stated that the “only significant exchange” with the President “involved the possibility of another stand down of the air campaign in North Vietnam.” Westmoreland urged that President Johnson “not consider any cessation of the full bombing program to the north,” emphasizing that “as a minimum” the air interdiction campaign of lines of communications in the southern part of the panhandle of North Vietnam south of Vinh was “militarily essential to the battle in the south.” (Center of Military History, Westmoreland Papers, #8 History File)
In JCS telegram 5039–66 to General Westmoreland, August 24, General Wheeler reported that the President had talked with Secretary McNamara that morning about Westmorelandʼs visit to the Ranch, stating that he appreciated better the problems confronting Westmoreland and his efforts to solve them, but there was one area in which he wanted “new and further action”: the “scale-down” of American personnel and facilities in Saigon. (Ibid., COMUSMACV Message Files)