281. Editorial Note
The Manila Summit Conference opened at 9:07 a.m. October 24, 1966. In attendance were President Lyndon Johnson; President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines; Chief of State Nguyen Van Thieu and Prime Minister Nguyen Cao Ky of Vietnam; President Chung Hee Park of Korea; and Prime Ministers Harold Holt of Australia, Keith Holyoake of New Zealand, and Thanom Kittikachorn of Thailand. Three days earlier, on October 21, delegations from the participating nations, including Secretary of State Rusk, had met in Manila for preparatory discussions.
An opening public session on October 24 was followed by a 3-hour closed session at which Vietnamʼs leaders reviewed the situation in their country and General Westmoreland made a statement. At a 2-hour closed session on the afternoon of October 24, following a working lunch, the chiefs of other governments, including President Johnson, made statements. The conference resumed at 11 a.m. on October 25 with a long executive session during which the communique was discussed and approved. A closing public session featured announcement of the three conference documents: the Declaration of Goals of Freedom, the Joint Communique, and the Declaration of Peace and Progress in Asia and the Pacific. For text, see Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966, Book II, pages 1259–1265.
Summary and verbatim records of the public and closed sessions, except for the executive session on October 25, are in Department of State, S/S-International Conferences: Lot 67 D 586, Presidentʼs Asian Trip, Oct.–Nov. 1966. No official record was kept of the executive session. Audiotape recordings of the public and closed sessions on October 24 are at the Johnson Library, Recordings and Transcripts. Comprehensive documentation [Page 776] of the conference, including planning documents and follow-up reports on international reaction, are ibid., National Security File, NSC History of the Manila Conference; ibid., International Meetings and Travel File, boxes 2–12; Department of State, S/S-International Conferences: Lot 67 D 586, Presidentʼs Asian Trip, Oct.-Nov. 1966; and ibid., Central Files, POL 7/PHILIPPINES.
Chester Cooper, a member of the U.S. delegation, described behind-the-scenes deliberations prior to and during the conference in The Lost Crusade, pages 310–320, including the controversy over insertion in the joint communique of wording calling for the withdrawal of U.S. and Allied troops within 6 months of North Vietnamʼs disengagement from the war. For commentary on the conference by two other members of the U.S. delegation, Assistant Secretary of Defense McNaughton and General Westmoreland, see Documents 284 and 286.
Following the Manila Conference, President Johnson visited South Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and South Korea, returning to Washington on November 2. At the Presidentʼs request, Ambassador at Large Harriman and Assistant Secretary of State Bundy reported to foreign leaders on the results of the conference. Harriman met with Heads of State and Ministers of Indonesia, Ceylon, India, Pakistan, Iran, Italy, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Morocco, in addition to Pope Paul VI. Memoranda of his conversations are in Department of State, Central Files, POL 27 VIET S. He discussed his trip at a meeting of the Negotiations Committee on November 10 (see Document 300) and submitted a report to the President on November 22 (Document 315). Chester Cooper, who accompanied Ambassador Harriman, described the trip in The Lost Crusade, pages 320–324. Bundy visited Taiwan and Japan and summarized the results in a memorandum to the President, November 15. (Johnson Library, National Security File, Memos to the President—Walt W. Rostow, vol. 15)