Declassified per Executive Order 13526, Section 3.3
NND Project Number: NND 63316. By: NWD Date: 2011
Dear Mr. President:
In reference to my letter dated 15 May 1961 and in reply to the invitation that was made to me in your name by Vice President Johnson I have the honor to send you a study of our needs to meet the new situation.
As I expressed verbally to your eminent representative, it pertains to a situation which has become very much more perilous following the events in Laos, the more and more equivocal attitude of Cambodia and the intensification of the activities of aggression of international communism which wants to take maximum advantage to accelerate the conquest of Southeast Asia. It is apparent that one of the major obstacles to the communist expansion on this area is Free Vietnam because with your firm support we are resolved to oppose it with all our energies. Consequently, now and henceforth, we constitute the first target for the communists to overthrow at any cost. The enomous accumulation of Russian war material in North Vietnam is aimed, in the judgement of foreign observers, more at South Vietnam that at Laos. We clearly realize this dangerous situation but I want to reiterate to you here in my personal name and in the name of the entire Vietnamese people, our indomitable will to win.
On the second of May, my council of generals met to evaluate the current situation and to determine the needs of the Republic of Vietnam to meet this situation. Their objective evaluation shows that the military situation at present is to the advantage of the communists and that most of the Vietnamese Armed Forces are already committed to internal security and the protection of our 12 million inhabitants. For many months the communist-inspired, fratricidal war has taken nearly one thousand casualties a month on both sides. Documents obtained in a recent operation along route No. 9 which runs from Laos to Vietnam, contain definite proof that 2,860 armed agents have infiltrated among us in the course of the last four months. It is certain that this number rises each day. However, the Vietnamese people are showing the world that they
TOP SECRET
