New Tapes Show Kennedy Regretted Vietnam Coup
BOSTON - Recordings released Tuesday show a remorseful President
John F. Kennedy shocked at the death of South Vietnamese leader Ngo Dinh
Diem and regretting the policy decisions that lead to the 1963 coup.
The John F. Kennedy Library and Museum released more than 37 hours of tape
recordings of meetings, memos, phone calls and dictation -- including four
hours of materials it recently acquired from the estate of the late
president's secretary, Evelyn Lincoln.
In one of those recently acquired recordings made on Nov. 4, 1963, Kennedy,
his voice sounding sad, dictates a memo about the Nov. 2 coup that lead to
the overthrow of the South Vietnam government and Diem's death. The United
States had withdrawn support from Diem and his government three months
earlier.
``I feel that we must bear a good deal of responsibility for it, beginning
with our cable of early August in which we suggested the coup,'' Kennedy
said.
``In my judgement that wire was badly drafted, it should never have been
sent on a Saturday. I should have not given my consent to it without a
round table conference in which (Secretary of Defense Robert) McNamara and
(chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff) General (Maxwell) Taylor could have
presented their views....
According to Kennedy's tape, McNamara, Taylor, the president's brother,
Robert Kennedy, who was the attorney general and others all spoke out
against backing a coup in the troubled southeast Asian republic.
``In favor of the coup was State, led by Averell Harriman...'' Kennedy said
on the tape.
``I was shocked by the death of Diem,'' Kennedy said, recalling how he had
once met him many years earlier. ``He was an extraordinary character. While
he became increasingly difficult in the last month, nevertheless, over a
10-year period, he held his country together.... The way he was killed made
it particularly abhorrent.''
Like Kennedy, Diem was a Catholic. With his brother, the South Vietnamese
leader was captured and then gunned down inside a Catholic Church not far
from Saigon. Less than three weeks later, Kennedy himself would be
assassinated.
Dr. Sheldon Stern, the library's historian, told reporters, ''For Kennedy,
Vietnam was a country, not a war.'' It was one of many hot spots with which
the president was concerned -- including the Berlin airlift, the Cuban
missile crisis, the nuclear test ban treaty negotiations and growing
anti-American sentiment in Latin America.
``You listen to these tapes; you read the transcripts... you hear him
talking about everything. It's incredibly complex,'' Stern said.
Stephanie Fawcett, former senior foreign policy archivist for the Library,
said by listening to the tapes, ``You become a fly on the wall of the Oval
Office. These are things that will affect the future.''
Reuters - November 24, 1998.
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