Declassified per Executive Order 13526, Section 3.3
NND Project Number: NND 63316. By: NWD Date: 2011
CONFIDENTIAL
OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
WASHINGTON 25, D. C.
25 July 1961
MEMORANDUM FOR MR. GILPATRIC
SUBJECT: The Staley Report
Attached is the "Joint Action Program Proposed by the Vietnam-U.S. Special Financial Groups" which has been submitted to both President Kennedy and President Diem. The latter read the report very carefully before we left Saigon and we understand has approved it insofar as his country is concerned. I recommend your read, as a minimum, the covering letter, paragraph 6 and sections III and IV (these are marked with paper-clips).
In Vietnam, as in many other areas of the world where the fight with the Communists is joined, the difference between success or failure will be determined not so much by the amount of the money we spend, but by the speed with which we act. The critical factor is time.
The amount of additional U.S. funds recommended by the Staley group over and above the current level of U.S. effort in Vietnam comes to the modest sum of $85.5 million, for the next eighteen months, of which $42 million is MAP.
You will note that while the U.S. is making this contribution, the Vietnamese will also be contributing $6.5 billion piasters (approximately $108 million at 60 piasters per/dollar). In other words, the attached program is truely, as its title indicates, a joint action program by both the Vietnamese and the U.S. Governments.
From the stand:pol nt of maintaining impetus behind the current counter-insurgency program within Vietnam, and to insure that, the U.S. Government takes prompt action on the Staley report, it is recommended that you:
a. Invite Dr. Sta1ey to brief the JCS on his report at your next meeting with the JCS. Mr. Nitze should be invited to attend;
b. Approve the report in principle and so notify the Secretary of State (draft letter attached;
c. Have the report considered at an early NSC meeting to obtain formal Presidential approval of the "Joint Action Program: and the general order of magnitude of the additional U.S. assistance to Vietnam which is recommended;
CONFIDENTIAL
