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Declassified per Executive Order 13526, Section 3.3
NND Project Number: NND 63316. By: NWD Date: 2011 TOP SECRET – Sensitive
NND Project Number: NND 63316. By: NWD Date: 2011 TOP SECRET – Sensitive
IV.C.1.
U. S. PROGRAMS IN SOUTH VIETNAM, NOVEMBER 1963 - April 1965
NSAM 273 - NSAM 288
CHRONOLOGY
| DATE | EVENT OR DOCUMENT | DESCRIPTION |
| 20 Nov 1963 | Honolulu Conference | Secretaries McNamara and Rusk and their party meet with the entire US country team and review the South Vietnamese situation after the Diem coup. |
| 22 Nov 1963 | Kennedy Assassination | President Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas. Lodge confers with the new President, Johnson, in Washington, during the next few days. |
| 26 Nov 1963 | NSAM 273 | Drawing on the Honolulu Conference and Lodge's conversations with the President, NSAM 273 established US support for the new Minh government and emphasized that the level of effort, economic and military, would be maintained at least as high as to Diem. All US and GVN efforts were to be concentrated on the Delta where the VC danger was greatest. But the war remained basically a South Vietnamese affair to win or lose. |
| 6 Dec 1963 | Report on Long An Province | A report by a USOM provincial representative on Long An Province, adjacent to Saigon, describes the near complete disintegration of the strategic hamlet program. The basic problem is the inability or unwillingness of the ARVN to provide timely support when villages are under attack. Hamlets are being overrun by the VC on an almost daily basis. Ambassador Lodge forwards the report to Washington. |
| 17 Dec 1963 | NSC Meeting | After hearing a briefing by General Krulak that falls short of giving an adequate explanation for the Long An report, the President decides to send McNamara on another fact-finding trip. |
| 18-20 Dec 1963 | SecDef Trip to Vietnam | During this quick visit to South Vietnam, McNamara ordered certain immediate |
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TOP SECRET – Sensitive
