14. Telegram From Secretary of State Rusk to the Department of State1
Secto 19. Eyes only for the President and Acting Secretary. I had a forty-five minute talk with Prime Minister Holt this morning and found him one thousand percent in support of what we are trying to accomplish in Southeast Asia. I expect, therefore, that his visit will be most helpful.2 I would hope that he could be given exposure to some of our [Page 31] Congressional people. It seems to me that his visit should be in the framework of an ally meeting its responsibilities. Putting together their enlarged forces in Viet Nam and their forces in Malaysia, their effort has been entirely respectable, particularly when we take into account the military establishment with which they started two years ago. In other words, we should help ourselves by bragging on the Australians and not subject them to the question “why donʼt you do more?” The impression I have gotten during the day from chit chat from Australian political leaders, including some Labor Party opposition, is that the government will take the Viet Nam issue into the next election in a very strong position in so far as Australian public opinion is concerned. We have friends here and Holtʼs visit should underline this fact.
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, POL 27 VIET S. Secret; Nodis. No time of transmission is on the source text. Rusk was attending the SEATO and ANZUS Council meetings, June 27–29 and June 30–July 1 respectively, at Canberra. A fuller account of this discussion is in Secto 35 from Canberra, June 29. (Ibid., POL AUSTL–US) Both this telegram and Secto 35 were retyped in the White House for the President.↩
- Holt visited Washington on June 29.↩