356. Editorial Note

On December 31, 1966, President Johnson and Ambassador Goldberg had a 47-minute telephone conversation commencing at 8:45 a.m. A principal topic of conversation was Vietnam. Included were the following comments:

“President: I just think that Hanoi is not ready. Everybody thinks that Hanoi is ready; the Pope, the Poles, the Russians, but when you really get down to it, they just cannot make a budge there with this situation as it is.

Goldberg: I donʼt disagree with that assessment.”

Later during the same conversation:

“President: So I say OK, tell you [North Vietnam] what Iʼll do. You will not see a plane fly over Hanoi, and you wonʼt see a plane fly over [Page 987] Haiphong. And we got a circle here, and we wonʼt do anything. Now you give me some reciprocate action. And by God, they just shoot down one of my patrols immediately. They donʼt do one damn thing and they donʼt acknowledge it. And you canʼt hear from them and you ask the Russians why they canʼt deliver something and they say, well, theyʼre not quite ready yet. Now I havenʼt been over Hanoi in days. I havenʼt been over Haiphong in weeks. And Iʼm just sitting here urging them. But Iʼve got all the weight of the world saying for Godʼs sake quit letting these trucks assemble there and come down here and just kill our people. I think Iʼm going to be tried not by Bertrand Russell but by Mrs. Goldberg for killing her boy without giving him the weapons to protect himself.

Goldberg: Bertrand Russell has become a nut.

“President: No but do you heed my point, sir? I think my great danger is how can a commander in chief stop his men from fighting unless the other side is just willing to do something.” (Johnson Library, Recordings and Transcripts, Recording of Telephone Conversation between Johnson and Goldberg, December 31, 1966, 8:23 p.m., Tape F6612.04, PNO 3)