VIET WAR DESPERATE: MC NAMARA SEES CHIEFS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000700610008-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 9, 2004
• Sequence Number: 8
• Content Type: NSPR

25X1
Approved For Release 2004/12/15 : CIA-RDP75-00149R00070
Crucial 90 Days Ahead in Battle With Reds
Viet mar Desperate:
McNamara Sees chiefs:
From Cable Dispatches
SAIGON.
U. S. Defense Secretary Robert S. Mc-
Namara landed in Saigon yesterday and
promptly plunged into a series of briefings
by top-American military advisers on South
Viet Nam's desperate struggle against
Communist-led Viet Cong guerrillas.
The reports he got were hardly encour-
aging. The military junta that seized con-
trol of the government on Nov. 1 spends
too much time politicking and not enough
fighting the war, in the American view.
A step-up in the number of guerrilla
raids and ambushes has taken a heavy toll
since the overthrow of President Ngo Dinh
Diem. Yesterday a U. S. spokesman report-
ed 11 government troops killed in clashes
with the Viet Cong and claimed 12 guerrilla
deaths.
"If things don't get moving within 90
days, we are lost," said one American of-
ficial.
Mr. McNamara, accompanied by two,
Assistant Secretaries of State, was met at
the airport by U. S. Ambassador Henry
Cabot Lodge,. Qen. Paul D. Harkins, the
chief Amens , military,, adviser in the
country, and `-W. Oen. Fran Van Don,
South Viet Naln's Defense Minister.
U. S. Central Intelligence Agency direc-
tor John A. MaCone slipped into Saigon
unannounced on Wednesday night to sit it
on the talks, and there were reports that
the CIA chief in Laos had flown in from
Vientiane along '. th U. S. Ambassador.
Leonard Unger.
Before climbing into a limousine with
Ambassador Lodge at the airport. Mr. Mc
Namara said noncommittally, "I am here
to determine the progress of our program,-
discuss its problems and find solutions."
After his last visit to Viet Nam. in See.
tember, Secretary McNamara reported to
the late President Kennedy that vtgtualiy,
all the 17:000 Americans there roui,i., prob-
ably be o.'tthdrawn by uhe end of 965 if'
the anti-Communist war eon'.i to qo
well. About J,.O00 puilc,t.out '-a .. J a.
,lil,",SION TO SAIGON-Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, left, arrives at Saig,
airport and is greeted by Ambassador to South. Viet Nam Henry Cabot. Lodge (ce
ter) and Vietnamese Defense Minister Maj. Gen. Tran Van Don. Mr. McNamara flq
there for high-level talks on. war 'against Communist Viet Cong guerrilla fore
It: recent weeks the Viet Cong has
tightened its stranglehold on the rice-bowl
Mekong Delta region and a government
counter-offensive in the hard-uressed area
just south of the capital has not vet ma-;
terlalized.
An American spokesman also admitted
yesterday that the country's main north-
south rail line was blown up yesterday for
the second time to a week, only 30 miles
from Saigon. Troops were rushed to the
area to keep the guerrillas from looting the
wrecked train.
Mr. McNamara was to meet today-after
his thorough briefing-with Maj. Gen.
Duong Van Minh, head of the, ruling junta,
anri then with Premier Nguyen Ngoc Tho.
The Defense Secretary is scheduled to fly
back to Washington tonight.
Approved For Release 2004/12/15 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000700610008-3