236. Telephone Conversation Between President Johnson and the Presidentʼs Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bundy)1

President: What Iʼm worried about, thereʼs one thing that worries me about the whole thing. I think theyʼll demonstrate and raise hell, and all that Iʼm prepared for, but the one thing that I thought was the word reduce, that doesnʼt mean anything to me. I would say discontinue, and I donʼt think it means a damn thing to say reduce, [Page 586] and I hope somebody doesnʼt pick that up and go picking at us. But if they do, I think that weʼve got to say that our intention is to get rid of the people who are under his control, who donʼt want to live on the base, and who are going to take their money and finance Castro.

Bundy: What we mean in other words is to make this program effective, but not to state it in a provocative way.

President: Thatʼs right, what we mean is to discontinue.

Bundy: Yep.

President: Get rid of these people, and because if Goldwater gets ahold of it, heʼll say, why hell, he said he was going to reduce, he doesnʼt have to take but a half dozen of them, and thatʼs a reduction.

Bundy: Yeah, I think that action will make a nonsense out of that. I donʼt think thatʼs the way Bobʼs going to run it.

President: No, okay. You take care of it for me the best you can.

Bundy: Iʼll do the best I can, Sir.

  1. Source: Johnson Library, Recordings and Transcripts, Recording of telephone conversation between President Johnson and McGeorge Bundy, Tape F64.12, Side A, PNO 2. No classification marking. This transcript was prepared in the Office of the Historian specifically for this volume.