Office of the Historian

139. Memorandum of Conversation1

Washington, December 20, 1965, 11:30 a.m.

SUBJECT

  • Viet-Nam

PARTICIPANTS

  • US
    • The President
    • Ambassador Hand
    • Mr. Jack Valenti
    • Harry Obst, State Department interpreter
  • German
    • Chancellor Ludwig Erhard
    • Heinz Weber, FRG interpreter

The President said de Gaulle and the Soviets knew quite well that the US had an unwavering commitment to defend Europe. We nevertheless do have to honor our commitment in Viet-Nam. We had not, however, worked out how we were going to do that. If we withdraw, we would be breaking a commitment and our word would no longer be any good. We cannot accept a defeat.

The Viet-Nam conflict is beginning to put a strain on our budget which will have to expand to accommodate the necessary expenditures.

All of this does not help us in our effort to cure our balance of payments.

  1. Source: Department of State, Conference Files: Lot 66 D 347, CF 2571. Secret. Drafted by Obst and approved in the White House on December 30. The meeting was held at the White House. The source text is marked “Part II of III.” A memorandum of conversation of the discussion of the Great Society and Space, “Part I of III,” is ibid. The portion of the conversation on the offset agreement is Document 140. Documentation on discussions of nuclear sharing is printed in Foreign Relations, 1964–1968, vol. XIII, Documents 119 and 120.↩