Declassified per Executive Order 13526, Section 3.3
NND Project Number: NND 63316. By: NWD Date: 2011
TOP SECRET – Sensitive
(a) the plan for military intervention discussed at this morning's meeting on the basis of the Vietnam task force paper entitled 'Concept for Intervention in Vietnam';
(b) an alternative plan for stationing in Vietnam fewer US. combat forces than those called for under the plan referred to in (a) above and with a more limited objective than dealing with the Viet Cong; in other words, such a small force would probably go in at Tourane [DaNang] and possibly another southern port principally for the purpose of establishing a U.S. 'presence' in Vietnam;
(c) other alternatives in lieu of putting any U.S. combat forces in Vietnam, i.e. stepping up U.S. assistance and training of Vietnam units, furnishing of more U.S. equipment, particularly helicopters and other light aircraft, trucks and other ground transport, etc.
3. During the two or three weeks that will be required for the completion of General Taylor's mission, State will push ahead with the following political actions:
(a) protest to the ICC on the step-up in North Vietnamese support of Viet Cong activities,
(b) tabling at the UN a white paper based on Mr. William Jordan's report concerning Communist violations of the Geneva Accords, and
(c) consultation with our SEATO allies, principally the British and Australians, regarding SEATO actions in i support of the deteriorating situation in Vietnam. 9/
That afternoon, the President announced the Taylor Mission, but he did not make the hardly credible claim that he was sending his personal military advisor to Vietnam to do an economic survey. He made a general announcement, and was non-committal when asked whether Taylor was going to consider the need for combat troops (there had been leaked stories in the newspapers a few days earlier that the Administration was considering such a move.) Nevertheless, the newspaper stories the next day flatly asserted that the President had said Taylor was going to study the need for U.S. combat troops, which was, of course, true, although not exactly what the President had said. 10/
II. THE NEWSPAPERS AND THE CABLES
The day after Kennedy's announcement of the Taylor mission, Reuters sent this dispatch from Saigon:
