Declassified per Executive Order 13526, Section 3.3
NND Project Number: NND 63316. By: NWD Date: 2011
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V. Immediate Steps
Fullest use should be made of the existing position of personal confidence and understanding which General Lansdale holds with President Diem and other key Vietnamese. In addition to giving a major assist to the new Presidential Task Force for Vietnam in Washington, General Lansdale should accompany the new U.S. Ambassador to Saigon to facilitate good working relations with the Vietnamese Government from the earliest moment and to be in command of the initial implementation of President Kennedy's Task Force Plan for Vietnam. This would speed early actions in the field and assure, upon Lansdale's return to Washington, that the Task Force in Washington applied itself to practical priorities to win this one.
While in Vietnam, Lansdale also could obtain President Diem's permission and then call non-Communist political opposition leaders together and encourage them to rely on legal means of opposition, to help in the fight against the Communist Viet Cong, and to cease scheming coup d'etats.
Other actions he could take while in Vietnam include:
- a. Confer with President Diem on expediting of obtaining a popular base through such means as a "Presidential Complaints and Action Commission." his would fit appropriately into the tasks of the Secretary of State for the Presidency, where President Diem now has one of his ablest executives, Nguyen Dinh Thuan. The Filipino expert on this subject; Frisco Johnny San Juan, who assisted Magsaysay and who is favorably known, to President Diem, could be brought to Saigon to help establish this. It would give the people an immediate feeling of personal connection with a responsive government.
- b. Visit the Hue area, just south of the demarcation line of the 17th Parallel, to see what might be done to dramatize the benefits of U.S.-Vietnam friendship. The Communists are highly aware of what goes on in this region. 1£ American youth from the Peace Corps worked side by side with Vietnamese on
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