345. Editorial Note
President Johnson and Secretary Rusk talked on the telephone on September 16, 1966, at 10:18 a.m. The first 2 minutes and 8 seconds of the conversation were not available because of donor deed restrictions, so it begins with Rusk responding to the President, who was clearly annoyed and displeased, apparently at press reports of his discussion with Marcos:
[Page 764]Rusk: I will try to turn this around a bit at my press conference this afternoon.
Johnson: I just sure would. I would take every item and show it’s a regular and moderate item that has been presented. And the President [Marcos] did not come and did not spend any of his hour and ten minutes discussing loans or aid. He said that he didn’t want to discuss that and President Johnson agreed. They talked about the space thing and bringing some fellowship people in here. And they talked about studying the waters out there, oceanography. And they talked about an insurgency school and they talked about the Asian Development Bank. And I’m going out there some time, some way, I don’t know how. But if you want to drop that you can say that they talked about that because he did urge me to come. I think that’ll give you something a little dramatic that will get them off the money, them going out there. (Johnson Library, Recordings and Transcripts, Telephone Conversation between President Johnson and Secretary Rusk, September 16, 1966, 10:19 a.m., Tape F66.24, Side A, PNO 1)
At his press conference on September 16, Rusk answered a question on Marcos’ proposed Asian political forum as a potential means of resolving the Vietnam war and his encouragement of contacts between North and South Vietnam. For text of the question and Rusk’s reply, see Department of State Bulletin, October 3, 1966, page 480.