JFK+50: Volume 7, No. 2439
JFK ASKS FOR URGENT REVIEW OF SITUATION IN VIETNAM
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) Fifty-four years ago, September 21, 1963, President John F. Kennedy sent Robert S. McNamara* and General Maxwell Taylor** to Saigon to provide an "urgent review" of the situation in Southeast Asia.
Bob McNamara, Secretary of Defense, and General Taylor, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spent a week in South Vietnam and issued a brief report to the President on October 2, 1963.
Following are the main points made in the report:
1. The Diem-Nhu government is increasingly unpopular.
2. Many SV military officers are hostile to the D-N government.
3. Withhold (some) financial aid to SV to pressure for meaningful reforms.
*Robert S. McNamara (1916-2009) was born in San Francisco & graduated from Harvard Business School. RSM served in the US Army Air Corps in WWII and later was president of Ford Motor Company.
Described as 'one of the most influential defense secretaries of the 20th century,' McNamara became disillusioned with the Vietnam War in 1968 & wrote a memo to LBJ to freeze American troop levels and stop the bombing of the north.
RSM remained silent about his true feelings for 28 years, but in 1995 he admitted that the war was 'terribly wrong' and that the American failure was in seeing the enemy through the prism of the cold war.
**Maxwell Davenport Taylor (1901-1987) MDT graduated from West Point in 1922 and served in the US Army Corps of Engineers. He served in the 101st Airborne Division in WWII. After his stint on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Taylor was Ambassador to South Vietnam 1964-1965.
SOURCES
"Robert S. McNamara, Architect of a Futile War, Dies at 93," by Tim Weiner, July 6, 2009, New York Times, www.nytimes.com/
"The McNamara-Taylor Report on Vietnam, 1963", alpha history, Vietnam War, www.alphahistory.com/
"This Is What We Do", The Vietnam War: A Film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, September 21, 2017, www.pbs.org/
JFK ASKS FOR URGENT REVIEW OF SITUATION IN VIETNAM
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) Fifty-four years ago, September 21, 1963, President John F. Kennedy sent Robert S. McNamara* and General Maxwell Taylor** to Saigon to provide an "urgent review" of the situation in Southeast Asia.
Bob McNamara, Secretary of Defense, and General Taylor, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spent a week in South Vietnam and issued a brief report to the President on October 2, 1963.
Following are the main points made in the report:
1. The Diem-Nhu government is increasingly unpopular.
2. Many SV military officers are hostile to the D-N government.
3. Withhold (some) financial aid to SV to pressure for meaningful reforms.
*Robert S. McNamara (1916-2009) was born in San Francisco & graduated from Harvard Business School. RSM served in the US Army Air Corps in WWII and later was president of Ford Motor Company.
Described as 'one of the most influential defense secretaries of the 20th century,' McNamara became disillusioned with the Vietnam War in 1968 & wrote a memo to LBJ to freeze American troop levels and stop the bombing of the north.
RSM remained silent about his true feelings for 28 years, but in 1995 he admitted that the war was 'terribly wrong' and that the American failure was in seeing the enemy through the prism of the cold war.
**Maxwell Davenport Taylor (1901-1987) MDT graduated from West Point in 1922 and served in the US Army Corps of Engineers. He served in the 101st Airborne Division in WWII. After his stint on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Taylor was Ambassador to South Vietnam 1964-1965.
SOURCES
"Robert S. McNamara, Architect of a Futile War, Dies at 93," by Tim Weiner, July 6, 2009, New York Times, www.nytimes.com/
"The McNamara-Taylor Report on Vietnam, 1963", alpha history, Vietnam War, www.alphahistory.com/
"This Is What We Do", The Vietnam War: A Film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, September 21, 2017, www.pbs.org/
McNamara, Taylor and JFK
EXCOM Meeting
January 25, 1963
JFK Library Photo
