The transcripts of the October 29, 1963 meeting reveal McNamara and Bundy did willfully violate President Kennedy's Vietnam strategy and actively sabotage collaboration among the U.S. Armed Forces and the U.S. State Department. More specifically, they directed Ambassador Cabot Lodge in Saigon, South Vietnam to keep General Harkins in the dark about the coup d'Ã tat promoted by Lodge.
The October 29, 1963 NSC meeting reveals misrepresentations consistent with treason by Bundy and McNamara. They are spread all over throughout the meeting, but the following are several specific examples:
White House transcripts page 109, Robert McNamara: "Up to this point, Harkins has not been informed of the coup plan .
Robert McNamara, page 113: "I personally believe Harkins is not informed about this coup planning that has occurred in the last several days .
Page 115, the President: "It's Lodge that didn't want to know what our message is following the August 24th cable, which we worked .
Page 121, Robert McNamara: "It is the sudden feeling we have in the last day or so that Lodge isn't telling Harkins about the coup .
Page 131, the President: "This is Lodge's fault for not bringing Harkins in .
Page 131, McNamara: "We have to say, Mr. President, one of our outgoings could be the basis for Lodge not putting Harkins in .
"We all, a couple of them.
Page 131, Bundy: "We said keep Harkins out of contact.
In "In Retrospect," Robert McNamara reveals the following on page 68: Kennedy saw the letter as a guidance to me but also as a document that I could show to others and say "This is what the President desires." But the anti-Diem activists in Washington (possibly a reference to Bundy, Hilsman and Forrestal) continued their rear guard action. Unbeknownst to Mac and me, Hilsman sent Lodge a letter after reading the President's instructions to me.
Page 70: On September 27, 1963, the handwritten message from Hilsman to Lodge, hand carried by Forrestal, stated the following:
"Dear Cabot, I am taking advantage of Mike Forrestal's safe hands to deliver this message.
I have the feeling that more and more of the town is coming around to our view, i.e., that Diem must be removed by a coup and that, if you in Saigon and we in the department stick to our guns, the rest will also come around. As Mike will tell you, a determined group here will back you all the way."
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