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Oral history transcript, George Ball, interview 1 (I), 7/8/1971, by Paige E. Mulhollan (Item)
  • perform as a public relations ambassador, either in the Berlin case or in his Vietnam trip? Acceptably or unknowledgeably? B: He was very hard to work with, I think partly because of the insecurity of his own position. It was much more difficult to work
  • LBJ as Vice-President; Cuban Missile Crisis; August 1964 telegram regarding Diem fall; Roger Hilsman; JFK assassination; DeGaulle and LBJ; LBJ's early presidency; LBJ and Vietnam; Ball's Vietnam memoranda to LBJ; Tonkin Gulf incident and resolution
Oral history transcript, Whitney Shoemaker, interview 1 (I), 11/25/1968, by Dorothy Pierce (McSweeny) (Item)
  • deal of it, a large part of it, is dispatched immediately from the mail section to the department or agency concerned. We are speaking now of anywhere from a parent who seeks an emergency leave for his or her boy in Vietnam because the husband
Oral history transcript, Frank McCulloch, interview 1 (I), 5/13/1980, by Michael L. Gillette (Item)
  • Histories [NAID 24617781] More on LBJ Library oral histories: http://discoverlbj.org/exhibits/show/loh/oh McCulloch -- I -- 2 that the war, the kind of war that was fought in Vietnam, was totally outside the American context, totally outside the American
  • Vietnam
  • Biographical information; reporting from Vietnam; press in the advisory war; Diem regime; correspondents’ activities; networks of sources and information; view of Vietnam; Buddhist-Catholic strife; Hoa My; rural-urban dichotomy; factions; Nguyen
Oral history transcript, John T. Connor, interview 1 (I), 6/22/1988, by Michael L. Gillette (Item)
  • ://discoverlbj.org/exhibits/show/loh/oh Connor -- I -- 6 And part of the reasoning was because of the growing costs of the Vietnam conflict and this I think is fundamental. The President was sliding step by step into a growing war situation in Southeast Asia
Oral history transcript, Donnelly Bolton, interview 1 (I), 8/19/1982, by Ted Gittinger (Item)
  • Gittinger PLACE: LBJ Library, Austin, Texas Tape 1 of 2 G: Can we begin with your giving us some idea of your background and military education and so forth prior to your assignment to Vietnam? D: Yes. I'm a 1942 graduate of the [U.S.] Military
  • Bolton’s military and educational career; the Holscher Committee; duties in the Congo; Gamal Abdel Nasser; duties in Vietnam; restrictions to fighting in Vietnam; reasons for failure in Vietnam; the 1st Cavalry Division; Attleboro; Ted Dessausure
Oral history transcript, John P. Roche, interview 1 (I), 7/16/1970, by Paige E. Mulhollan (Item)
  • in front of the NSC meeting which followed? R: That was in 1965. That was February, 1965, and what occurred, as I understand it, was we had a delegation in to see President Johnson from th~ ADA. We were at that point split among ourselves on Vietnam
  • Vietnam
  • Roche’s career advancements in politics; LBJ’s relationship with the Kennedys, McNamara, Bundy, Valenti, Moyers, Rostow and others; his involvement in Vietnam-related issues; personal evaluation of may official personnel and the effectiveness
Oral history transcript, Joseph W. Barr, interview 5 (V), 9/12/1986, by Michael L. Gillette (Item)
  • TRANSCRIPT More on LBJ Library oral histories: http://discoverlbj.org/exhibits/show/loh/oh Barr -- V -- 4 B: Well, you will see that, in December, I went out to Vietnam on the Asian Bank, and I reported what some of the congressmen and senators were
  • Excise tax reduction; raising the discount rate in 1965; Robert McNamara's and Charles Schultze's misrepresentations of defense expenditures; Barr's involvement in the opening of a bank in Vietnam; the effect of U.S. involvement in Vietnam
Oral history transcript, Frederick Flott, interview 2 (II), 7/24/1984, by Michael L. Gillette (Item)
  • /exhibits/show/loh/oh Flott -- II -- 7 instinctively resented the American pre-eminence in Vietnam, which had been their turf. In an emotional way they resented it. Now, to carry that to say the French government was planning coups is, I think
  • Vietnam
  • Returning to Saigon following the JFK assassination; Robert McNamara’s December 1963 visit to Vietnam; January 1964 Khanh coup and alleged French involvement; what the French might have wished for Vietnam; Christmas 1964 in Dalat; Tran Van Don; Le
Oral history transcript, Phil G. Goulding, interview 1 (I), 1/3/1969, by Dorothy Pierce (McSweeny) (Item)
  • : During any of this period, were you involved in any examinations or coverage of what we were doing in Vietnam in the late '50s? ~.;e G: In the late '50s--1 certainly did not go to Vietnam in the late '50s. I did write a long series of s tories--which I
Oral history transcript, Joseph A. Califano, interview 15 (XV), 12/15/1987, by Michael L. Gillette (Item)
  • in which we were beating on him because he didn't have our budget and he didn't have this. G: Martin has indicated that his decision was based on his own information about Vietnam spending. [Robert] McNamara had just come back from Vietnam and had
Oral history transcript, Joseph A. Califano, interview 24 (XXIV), 3/16/1988, by Michael L. Gillette (Item)
  • side the chiefs said, "Yes, we have enough," or, "If we have a few more of this," and the rosy reports that were coming back from Vietnam. But if you calculate a budget to end at the end of the fiscal year, the war to end at the end of the fiscal year
Oral history transcript, Ellsworth Bunker, interview 3 (III), 10/12/1983, by Michael L. Gillette (Item)
  • down through the Ho Chi Minh Trail, through the jungle or across the DMZ. At best it was an estimate, and it wasn't vital at all, in my view, in the subsequent developments in Vietnam. We knew they were coming down the Ho Chi Minh Trail, we knew
  • Appointment as ambassador by LBJ; Guam Conference, 1967; impressions of Nguyen Van Thieu and Nguyen Cao Ky; Vietnam's presidential election campaign in 1967; religious factions; advice to Thieu; recommendation for U.S. to close Viet Cong's use
Oral history transcript, Thomas H. (Admiral) Moorer, interview 2 (II), 9/16/1981, by Ted Gittinger (Item)
  • said that we were trying to deliberately provoke attack, and the other one said there wasn't an attack. there was an attack so we could bomb. We just said So it was typical of the Vietnam War, that kind of inaccurate information was spread out across
  • Vietnam
  • ; the concept of gradualism; views on policy during the Vietnam War; the roles of China and Russia; reflections on bombing; effect of the mining of Haiphong; air reconnaissance; service morale; Tet Offensive; reflections on LBJ; observations on the failure
Oral history transcript, Norman S. Paul, interview 1 (I), 2/21/1969, by Dorothy Pierce (McSweeny) (Item)
  • overseas trip I took was in the spring of 1967--1 believe it was April--when I went to Japan and the Philippines and Vietnam and Thailand, again strictly on Air Force business. M: Mr. Paul, how do you relate your first two Defense positions in OSD
  • Vietnam
  • Early government positions Paul held before becoming Assistant Secretary of Defense; his views of LBJ’s decisions relating to Vietnam; availability and suitability of various planes and equipment; budgetary items; training of personnel; military
Oral history transcript, Paul Henry Nitze, interview 3 (III), 12/26/1968, by Dorothy Pierce (McSweeny) (Item)
  • Vietnam involvement and I'd like to continue with one more question in that area. From a national security standpoint, has our experience in Vietnam made the U.S. both publicly and in policy dangerously wary of this type of involvement in the future? N
  • Vietnam
  • The effect of the Vietnam war on future U.S. involvement in other countries; the success of the Military Assistance Program; the decision to commit U.S. forces in the Dominican Republic in May 1965; the June 1967 Arab-Israel War; the attack
Oral history transcript, Samuel T. Williams, interview 1 (I), 3/2/1981, by Ted Gittinger (Item)
  • INTERVIWEE: GENERAL SAMUEL T. WILLIAMS INTERVlp·1ER: TED GITTINGER PLACE: General Williams' residence, San Antonio, Texas Tape 1 of 2 G: General Williams, what had been your assignments in the four or five years prior to your going to Vietnam
  • Vietnam
  • Biographical information; history of U.S. activities in South Vietnam; assignment to Vietnam; Korea; Kumsong salient; Mike O’Daniel; MAAG in Vietnam; 1955 relations with the French; Edward Lansdale; early political-military situation; religious
Oral history transcript, Morris Abram, interview 2 (II), 5/3/1984, by Michael L. Gillette (Item)
  • to the Johnson Administration. It didn't happen that he picked people who were loyal. All the leaders in the movement were loyal except Martin [Luther King], who was off on a tangent about the Vietnam War, but he was able to be lassoed in because of his respect
  • ; Abram’s appointment as US representative to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights; comparing U.S. human and civil rights violations to other countries, specifically Haiti and Greece; Abram’s U.N. work in regards to Vietnam; considering running for Senate
Oral history transcript, Eugene M. Zuckert, interview 1 (I), 3/18/1969, by Dorothy Pierce (McSweeny) (Item)
  • histories: http://discoverlbj.org/exhibits/show/loh/oh it was my observation that President Johnson would. An exception to this was in 1965. The decision was pending as to whether or not we should escalate the troop strength in Vietnam. I had resigned
  • of air power over North Vietnam; McNamara evaluated; possibility of a military victory in Vietnam; justification for U.S. policy in Vietnam; effectiveness of bombing North Vietnam; impact of the Vietnam War upon the air force; the B-70 issue; manned space
Oral history transcript, Lawrence F. O'Brien, interview 20 (XX), 4/23/1987, by Michael L. Gillette (Item)
  • talking. Why? It probably reflects the focus of attention on Vietnam, the disruption that occurs when you're busily engaged in other matters, the legislative program. Vietnam has flared up as a national issue of great concern to a lot of people, including
  • -finding and support for LBJ in his travel throughout the country; growing concern among Democratic leaders about Vietnam; presidential campaign work and organization prior to 1968; problems in the New Hampshire and Massachusetts primaries; lack of support
Oral history transcript, Ellsworth Bunker, interview 1 (I), 12/9/1980, by Michael L. Gillette (Item)
  • chosen ambassador to Vietnam? B: Yes, I remember how it occurred. I had been asked by Secretary [Dean] Rusk to go to Buenos Aires to head our mission to the OAS [Organization of American States] meeting. He had to leave, asked me to come there and take
  • that offensive was a deafeat for North Vietnam; Westmoreland's request for additional troops and Bunker's disagreement; defense of Phoenix program (identifying subversives); official visitors to Vietnam, 1967-1968
Oral history transcript, Keyes Beech, interview 1 (I), 3/22/1983, by Ted Gittinger (Item)
  • 22, 1983 INTERVIEWEE : KEYES BEECH INTERVIEWER : Ted Gittinger PLACE : The Cosmos Club, Washington, D .C . Tape 1 of 2 G: [When did you] become acquainted with B: In March 1954 . the Vietnam scene? and the Korean War had ended, I
  • Vietnam
  • First acquaintance with Vietnam scene; General O'Daniel; Ed Lansdale; Diem in 1955; different characteristics of the Vietnam War; Saigon in the 1950s; reflections on various correspondents; American-French relations in the period; Ngo Dinh Diem
Oral history transcript, Arthur J. Goldberg, interview 1 (I), 3/23/1983, by Ted Gittinger (Item)
  • to become his attorney general, and I refused it. Therefore the question recurs, why did I leave? I left for this reason. I had the feeling, on the basis of what was developing, that we were going to get enmeshed in Vietnam. I also had the egotistical
  • Decision to leave the Supreme Court; Vietnam; the “Wise Men;” 3/31 speech; George Ball; U Thant; bombing halts; Arab ambassadors; 1967 War between Israel and Egypt; Soviets; relationship with LBJ; reflections
Oral history transcript, Helen Gahagan Douglas, interview 1 (I), 11/10/1969, by Joe B. Frantz (Item)
  • cautious, very conservative. One of his thoughts that he expressed in one of his important speeches--it was a carefully considered speech--I think revealed something about his thinking and about his character that prepared the tragedy of Vietnam. You'll
Oral history transcript, Elbridge Durbrow, interview 1 (I), 6/3/1981, by Ted Gittinger (Item)
  • came back to Washington for about three or four weeks, I've forgotten how long. stationed in Malaysia. I'd been in Vietnam before, because I was I'd been up there [to visitJ my predecessor, Freddie Reinhardt, [who isJ a very close friend of mine
  • Vietnam
  • Assignment to Vietnam; situation there at the time; view of Diem in late 1950s; Wolf Ladejinsky; land reform; problems with relocation program; the Montagnards; conflict with General Sam Williams; MAAG and the embassy; Williams and Diem
Oral history transcript, John A. McCone, interview 1 (I), 8/19/1970, by Joe B. Frantz (Item)
  • blurred in my mind. F: Authority sources are much better sources than I am for that. There were also in '63 rumors of a policy rift in Vietnam between Ambassador Lodge and the CIA chief in Vietnam. Can you lend credence to that, or is this again
  • Vietnam
  • ; CIA role exaggerated by press; National Students Association; Watts and racial problems; Kerner Report; CIA relationship with other organizations in Vietnam; raw information provided for by the CIA
Oral history transcript, Joseph A. Califano, interview 19 (XIX), 1/27/1988, by Michael L. Gillette (Item)
  • . In those days even more than they have today. G: Really? C: Absolutely. G: Okay. Let's talk about the Hello Dolly! tour of South Vietnam. C: At some point in I guess August or very early September the President thought it would be a great idea
Oral history transcript, Joseph J. Sisco, interview 1 (I), 11/6/1971, by Paige E. Mulhollan (Item)
  • to you during that conversation? S: Well, after we got through. This was the interesting thing: We talked about China; we talked about Vietnam; we talked about the Middle East; we talked about a number of these issues. hour and a half's forget
  • Vietnam
  • LBJ interviews Sisco prior to his appointment; LBJ concerned with leaks; LBJ's grasp of foreign affairs; Arthur Goldberg and the Vietnam issue in the UN; the Camp David meeting on bringing the Vietnam issue before the UN Security Council
Oral history transcript, Frank F. Mankiewicz, interview 2 (II), 5/1/1969, by Stephen Goodell (Item)
  • thing, you were stirrounded by people who felt the same way that you did. I mean, I would think that a referendum on Vietnam in the Peace Corps, even in 1966, would have shown three out of four opposed. G: As well as in OEO, for that matter. M: Yes
  • Vietnam
  • Briefing Senator Robert Kennedy before his 1965 trip to Latin America; Peace Corps and OEO staffs’ opposition to Vietnam War, 1966- ; original purpose of U.S. intervention in Dominican Republic; Mankiewicz leaving the Peace Corps to become
Oral history transcript, Robert D. S. Novak, interview 1 (I), 11/15/1971, by Paige E. Mulhollan (Item)
  • , almost any President does. What finally brought him down with the press, as with everything, I think was mainly Vietnam. And then under the stress of Vietnam, his ruralisms, his lack of eastern sophistication, they all became very much evident, people
  • Vietnam
  • presidential press coverage; the effect of the Vietnam War on LBJ's presidency; the credibility gap; The Vantage Point; LBJ's press secretaries--George Christian, Bill Moyers; the fact that the press prints less than it knows; how Novak came to write his book
Oral history transcript, Joseph A. Califano, interview 17 (XVII), 1/5/1988, by Michael L. Gillette (Item)
  • them into the army, and giving them some training in English or math, whatever they needed to bring them up to our minimum standards. We thought this would both satisfy our need for men, which was increasing because of the Vietnam War, and at the same
Oral history transcript, William E. Colby, interview 1 (I), 6/2/1981, by Ted Gittinger (Item)
  • in deliberate intelligence targeting.So quite frankly our intelligence effort at the time was focused on an appreciation of the political situation in Vietnam and the relationship of Diem to the various opposition political elements, a limited interest
  • Intelligence operations in Vietnam; Ngo Dinh Nhu; French influence; Diem; North to South infiltration; social and economic regeneration; Americans in Vietnam in 1959; MAAG; land reform; strategic hamlet program; argoville program; Buddhists
Oral history transcript, Leon Keyserling, interview 1 (I), 1/9/1969, by Stephen Goodell (Item)
  • by now we all know it. Well, he doesn't have to s~ Why were they a mistake? First, they were a mistake because, while we could not foresee in detail the evolution of the Vietnam War, we did know that we lived in a perilous international world. We
  • Vietnam
  • interest rates; Rexford Tug-well; Keyserling’s influence on the New Deal; lasting effects of New Deal reforms; military spending and the economy; Vietnam war; planning public spending; jobs and on-the-job training; evaluation of LBJ’s domestic policies; how
Oral history transcript, Phillip B. Davidson, interview 2 (II), 6/30/1982, by Ted Gittinger (Item)
  • would have been near the end of November 1967, we had noticed some unusual activity in North Vietnam. I don't think it had any relationship to the trail, that is, the Ho Chi Minh Trail through Laos. We went to see General Westmoreland and told him
  • Vietnam
  • Summary of army career; involvement in intelligence regarding Vietnam; replacing General McChristian in Saigon; differences in McChristian and Davidson; "the Weekly Intelligence Estimate Update;" Creighton Abrams; counterintelligence; pattern
Oral history transcript, Lawrence F. O'Brien, interview 23 (XXIII), 7/21/1987, by Michael L. Gillette (Item)
  • of strong opposition to LBJ's Vietnam policy and strong support for Bobby. He was among the 6 LBJ Presidential Library http://www.lbjlibrary.org ORAL HISTORY TRANSCRIPT Lyndon B. Johnson Library Oral Histories [NAID 24617781] More on LBJ Library oral
  • of Humphrey's campaign staff; Joe Napolitan's work on publicity; Humphrey campaign finances; how the Vietnam War and the unit rule affected the 1968 Democratic National Convention; John Connally at the convention; rioting near the convention; Humphrey's
Oral history transcript, Keyes Beech, interview 2 (II), 5/30/1983, by Ted Gittinger (Item)
  • impressed upon me the absolute importance of an ambassador being in command at all times. G: Let me ask you to jump ahead with that. Saigon in the later years. B: Now, Graham Martin came to Were you covering things at that time? Well, I had left Vietnam
Oral history transcript, Ben Wattenberg, interview 1 (I), 11/23/1968, by T.H. Baker (Item)
  • the date somewhere in mid-July. It ,vas basically, he had been talking early that year almost exclusively about Vietnam this and Vietnam that, and this speech--I think Bill Moyers wrote it--dealt not with Vietnam but with America today, cribbed
Oral history transcript, George McArthur, interview 1 (I), 10/31/1985, by Ted Gittinger (Item)
  • strings to get to headquarters, whatever it was, for them to. . . . Well, there's a big stack of brass buried back in South Vietnam--those kind of stories. But anyhow, I was doing brass, and it was embarrassing to Graham at the time. No big deal, but any
  • relationship; McArthur's relationship with Graham Martin; Americans and Vietnamese selling scrap brass from Vietnam; Vietnamese military involvement in drug sales; American soldiers' marijuana and heroin use; drug use among African American soldiers; opium use
Oral history transcript, Daniel K. Inouye, interview 2 (II), 5/2/1969, by Dorothy Pierce (McSweeny) (Item)
  • would have Can you imagine discussing the platform in 30 minutes--10 for you and 20 for me, see--and Vietnam in between. That was the finest public debate on any issue in the history of our country, four and a half hours of high level debating
  • disagreed with LBJ; the "Johnson treatment;" monthly visits with LBJ and the subjects discussed; the 1965 five-man Senate group world tour led by Senator Mansfield: Aiken, Muskie, Caleb Boggs and Inouye; comments on Vietnam; LBJ's legislative successes
Oral history transcript, Bruce Palmer, interview 1 (I), 5/28/1982, by Ted Gittinger (Item)
  • of the President, according to Wheeler--"I don't want a second Cuba. Here I am about to go into Vietnam with all four feet, and I don't want another war going LBJ Presidential Library http://www.lbjlibrary.org ORAL HISTORY TRANSCRIPT Lyndon B. Johnson Library
Oral history transcript, Earle Wheeler, interview 2 (II), 5/7/1970, by Dorothy Pierce (McSweeny) (Item)
  • INTERVIEWEE: EARLE G. INTERVIEWER: DOROTHY PIERCE McSWEENY PLACE: General Wheeler's office in the Pentagon, Washington, D.C. ~JHEELER Tape 1 of 1 M: General, we were discussing Vietnam at the end of our last interview, and I would like to conclude
  • Vietnam