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[url=http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB302/index.htm]http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB302/index.htm[/ur
Kennedy Considered Supporting Coup in South Vietnam, August 1963
Newly Declassified Audio Tapes Reveal JFK Saw Only Negative Choices
National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 302
Posted - December 11, 2009
UPDATED NOVEMBER 1, 2013
For more information contact:
John Prados - 202/994-7000
William Colby and the CIA: The Secret Wars of a Controversial Spymaster
By John Prados
Related Postings
The CIA's Vietnam Histories
Newly-Declassified CIA Histories Show Its Involvement in Every Aspect of the Indochina War
Fighting the War in Southeast Asia, 1961-1973
Air Force Histories Reveal CIA Role in Laos, CIA Air Strike Missions, New Evidence on Nuclear Weapons, Air Force Policy Disputes, During Vietnam War Years
Intelligence and Vietnam
The Top Secret 1969 State Department Study
JFK and the Diem Coup
JFK tape reveals high-level Vietnam coup plotting in 1963
Washington, D.C., December 11, 2009 - At a critical moment in August 1963, President John F. Kennedy saw only negative choices on Vietnam, according to new audio recordings and documentation posted today by the National Security Archive. Recently declassified tapes of secret White House meetings on the possibility of U.S. support for a military coup against President Ngo Dinh Diem show that Kennedy believed that if Diem's brother Ngo Dinh Nhu remained a major influence, the war might not succeed. Recognizing that Congress might get "mad" at him for supporting coup-minded Vietnamese generals, Kennedy said that it will "be madder if Vietnam goes down the drain." Thus, Kennedy did not disagree when Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara said that the U.S. needed to "plan how we make this thing work." The tapes also show that McNamara, long held to have opposed the Diem coup, failed to express such a strong view at the moment of this decision.
The newly declassified tapes are authoritative evidence on U.S. policy toward the Vietnamese coup, and they shed fresh light on one of the most controversial episodes of the American war in Vietnam. In continuation of our previous coverage of this aspect of U.S. policy during the Vietnam war, the National Security Archive is posting the Kennedy tapes and memoranda containing the written accounts of the same National Security Council (NSC) meetings, together with related documents concerning this affair. The episode is covered in considerable detail in William Colby and the CIA: The Secret Wars of a Controversial Spymaster, by National Security Archive fellow John Prados.........Much more in the link...
[url=http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB302/index.htm]http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB302/index.htm[/ur
Kennedy Considered Supporting Coup in South Vietnam, August 1963
Newly Declassified Audio Tapes Reveal JFK Saw Only Negative Choices
National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 302
Posted - December 11, 2009
UPDATED NOVEMBER 1, 2013
For more information contact:
John Prados - 202/994-7000
William Colby and the CIA: The Secret Wars of a Controversial Spymaster
By John Prados
Related Postings
The CIA's Vietnam Histories
Newly-Declassified CIA Histories Show Its Involvement in Every Aspect of the Indochina War
Fighting the War in Southeast Asia, 1961-1973
Air Force Histories Reveal CIA Role in Laos, CIA Air Strike Missions, New Evidence on Nuclear Weapons, Air Force Policy Disputes, During Vietnam War Years
Intelligence and Vietnam
The Top Secret 1969 State Department Study
JFK and the Diem Coup
JFK tape reveals high-level Vietnam coup plotting in 1963
Washington, D.C., December 11, 2009 - At a critical moment in August 1963, President John F. Kennedy saw only negative choices on Vietnam, according to new audio recordings and documentation posted today by the National Security Archive. Recently declassified tapes of secret White House meetings on the possibility of U.S. support for a military coup against President Ngo Dinh Diem show that Kennedy believed that if Diem's brother Ngo Dinh Nhu remained a major influence, the war might not succeed. Recognizing that Congress might get "mad" at him for supporting coup-minded Vietnamese generals, Kennedy said that it will "be madder if Vietnam goes down the drain." Thus, Kennedy did not disagree when Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara said that the U.S. needed to "plan how we make this thing work." The tapes also show that McNamara, long held to have opposed the Diem coup, failed to express such a strong view at the moment of this decision.
The newly declassified tapes are authoritative evidence on U.S. policy toward the Vietnamese coup, and they shed fresh light on one of the most controversial episodes of the American war in Vietnam. In continuation of our previous coverage of this aspect of U.S. policy during the Vietnam war, the National Security Archive is posting the Kennedy tapes and memoranda containing the written accounts of the same National Security Council (NSC) meetings, together with related documents concerning this affair. The episode is covered in considerable detail in William Colby and the CIA: The Secret Wars of a Controversial Spymaster, by National Security Archive fellow John Prados.........Much more in the link...
