Word: memos
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Despite that logical precaution, Washington last week found itself trying to explain its way out of an embarrassing gaffe-caused by an American memo. Visiting Cairo, Columnist Joseph Kraft was told by Egyptian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Riad that Egypt had agreed to a written U.S. suggestion that Israel pull back from the canal to a line halfway across Sinai. The Egyptians would move to within 15 miles of the Israeli line, and a United Nations truce force would be set up between them...
...Israelis, who have never seen such a memorandum, much less agreed to such terms, were furious. Quickly, the State Department explained that the memo was not official. What had happened, it said, was that Donald Bergus, Washington's provisional representative in Cairo, had offered Riad his own "informal and personal" suggestion for a Suez plan. "He certainly stepped off the reservation," said one official, "but we're not going to disown him. He's a capable man with excellent contacts...
PESSIMISM ABOUT SAIGON. While higher officials sought to knock down persistent reports by newsmen in Saigon that the war was going badly, McNaughton in a memo on Nov. 6, 1964, offered a firm evaluation and prediction: "The situation in South Viet Nam is deteriorating. Unless new actions are taken, the new government will probably be unstable and ineffectual and the VC will probably continue to extend their hold over the population and territory. It can be expected that, soon (6 months? two years?), (a) government officials at all levels will adjust their behavior to an eventual VC takeover, (b) defections...
...around their ears, pull in their necks and ride it out." Finally, in April 1965, he put his thoughts on a paper circulated among top-level Government officials. The memo predicted events with uncanny accuracy. The bombing strikes had not demoralized the North Vietnamese, McCone argued. "If anything, the strikes to date have hardened their attitude. With the passage of each day and each week, we can expect increasing pressure to stop the bombing. Therefore time will run against us in this operation and I think the North Vietnamese are counting on this. We can expect requirements for an ever...
Equally prescient and independent was Under Secretary of State George Ball. Unswayed by the technocrats around him, he kept warning respectfully that their course was wrong. His memo to President Johnson on July 1, 1965, took account of souls, and French history, as well as weapons. It concluded: "No one can assure you that we can beat the Viet Cong or even force them to the conference table on our terms, no matter how many hundred thousand white, foreign [U.S.] troops we deploy. Once we deploy substantial numbers of troops in combat, it will become a war between...