JOHNSON PREPARED VIETNAMIZATION GLOBE RUNS END OF VIET STUDY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01314R000300380075-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 8, 2004
• Sequence Number: 75
• Publication Date: June 22, 1971
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2004/09/28: CIA-RDP88-01
. 51,1Il GTON DAILY NEVS
22 JUN 1971
:' Jou'ison prepared Vie namizafion .
BOSTON {UPI) - The Boston Globe today
.published the concluding part of the secret
Pentagon study. The segment says President
Johnson decided to support South Vietnam but
reduce American troops, a policy President
Nixon would name Vietnamization.
President Johnson made the decision just
.before he announced. March 31, 1968, that he
would not seek another term, The Globe said.
Globe officials said sections of the study,
which The New York Times and The Washing-
ton Post have been' restrained from publishing,.
came to them yesterday. They.did not mention
the source or whether they had further docu-
?ments.
The sections include, besides the Johnson do-
Cuments:
o A recommendation to President Kennedy
from Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor, that 8,000 U.S.
ground combat troops be sent into Vietnam in
the guise of flood control units. The Globe said
President Kennedy did not approve Gen. Tay-
lor's request.
o A request to the Soviet Union in May,
1965, asking them to inform Hanoi officially
that the United States would temporarily stop
bombing North Vietnam as a peace feeler. The
Soviets refused, The Globe said, because they
felt China would charge collusion with the
United States.
e A report of a June 2, 1964, meeting in`
Honolulu where Defense Secretary Robert S.
McNamara raised the possibility of using nu-
clear weapons "at some point if Chinese forces
entered the ground war.
According to The Globe, the January, 1968,
Tet offensive shook Washington's confidence in
an eventual end to the war ?and "altho it had
been predicted, took the U.S. command and
the?public by surprise and its strength, length,
and intensity prolonged this shock."
At this point, the study said, the Joint Chiefs
of Staff recommended refusing requests for
additional combat troops because the reserves
- needed in case of domestic disorders -
were becoming too thin.
The Globe said .an analyst said in the epi-
logue:
"The possibility of military victory had,
seemingly become remote and the cost had-
became too high both in political and economic
terms. Only then was it realized that a clear=
cut military victory was probably not possible
?
or necessary ..."
Gen, Taylor's cable, sent in late October,
1961, recommended that the United States "in-
itiate guerrilla action, including United States:
advisers if necessary," in the Sepone area of
Laos, and send troops to support the govern
nient of Ngo Dinh Diem.
"My view is that we should put in a task
force consisting largely of logistical troops for,
the purpose of participating in flood relief and
at the same time of providing a United States
military presence," the study said Gen. Taylor
wrote.
Approved For Release 2004/09/28 CIA-RDP88-01314R000300380075-0