46. Memorandum for the Record1
Washington, May 5, 1964.
SUBJECT
- National Security Council Meeting, 5 May 1964
PARTICIPANTS
- The President
- Mr. McGeorge Bundy, Mr. Valenti, Mr. Smith, Mr. Forrestal
- Secretary Rusk, Under Secretary Ball, Deputy Under Secretary Johnson, Governor Harriman, Ambassador Thompson, Mr. William Bundy
- Secretary McNamara, Mr. Vance, General Taylor, Mr. McNaughton
- Secretary Dillon
- The Attorney General
- Mr. McDermott
- Mr. Rowan
- Mr. McCone, Mr. Colby
- 1.
- The first part of the meeting was addressed to Cuba.
- 2.
- With respect to Laos, Mr. William Bundy briefed on the plans for increasing intelligence coverage of the routes through Laos to South Vietnam. He stated that Presidential approval had previously been obtained for the actions mentioned. He said that small patrols would be authorized in the areas north and east of Tchepone, with air in-and-ex-filtration, although it will take several weeks to launch the first of these patrols. With respect to air photo reconnaissance, pursuant to Ambassador Unger’s reservations, these will be withheld, but a new look will be taken after a week. Meanwhile specific targets for these will be determined. Secretary Rusk believed that we should not postpone these more than a week or so unless Souvanna clearly moves to take action. He suggested that we urge the ICC to inspect the Tchepone area and begin our overflights and offer to suspend our overflights if the ICC carries out proper inspection. (Action: FE/TBL with OCI and DIA—Please keep in touch with the list of specific targets.)
- 2.
- Mr. Bundy also added that an effort will be made to establish a single point at which detailed reports from all sources can be immediately analyzed in Washington, to analyze the traffic running over the routes from North Vietnam into southern Laos, and arrangements made to cross-fertilize the various intelligence operations in the area. (Action: FE [less than 1 line of source text not declassified]arrange for immediate integration of Vientiane reporting and participate with OCI, DIA, etc., in [Page 84] this center). Secretary McNamara emphasized that this information is badly needed as there has been a sharp increase in communications between North Vietnam and Viet Cong stations on the Lao/South Vietnam border, indicating a sharp upsurge in Viet Cong attention to this area.
WE Colby
Chief, Far East Division
- Source: Central Intelligence Agency, DCI (McCone) Files, Job 80–B01285A, Meetings with the President, 1 Apr-31 May 64. Secret. Drafted by Colby on May 6.↩