Oswald in the doorway: the blog of the Oswald Innocence Campaign, by Ralph Cinque

In the OIC, we have been discussing LBJ's hastily called meeting to revamp Vietnam strategy, scheduled on Saturday- the day after JFK's death- for Sunday.  

This is a response from Pete Mellor to John Hankey, which I am posting with permission:

John,

Re:-I was unaware that Johnson and Diem had had this close interaction that you write about. 

I refer to Newman's 'JFK and Vietnam' Chapter Four 'LBJ in Saigon' for a brilliant coverage of Johnson's May '61 meetings with Diem.  In concert with Ed Lansdale, Gen McGarr and Howard Burris, LBJ pushed Diem to accept U.S. combat troops into Vietnam, against the president's agenda.  LBJ stated after this meeting that Diem was 'the Churchill of Asia'.

Re;-Nsam 273 was presented by Johnson at this meeting, which took place immediately after Kennedy's funeral

Regarding NSAM 273, this was a result of the Honolulu conference of November 20th '63.  What is strange from this conference is that military intel reports stated for the first time true accounts of Viet Cong progress in the war.  The NSAM was prepared by McGeorge Bundy for Kennedy and was written up back in Washington on November 21st.  The first meeting in the White House that Johnson had regarding Vietnam was November 24th.  As a result of that meeting with Rusk, McNamara, Ball, Bundy, McCone and Lodge, Johnson revised NSAM 273 which he signed on November 26th.  LBJ stated that "I am not going to be the President who saw Southeast Asia go the way that China went."

Where Kennedy's intentions were to step back from war in Vietnam....after being re-elected, Johnson intended to commit U.S. ground troops into an escalation of the war...after the '64 elections, hence at Christmas '63 he told the JCS that after the election they could have their goddam war!    & the rest is history. 

Pete