 Sorry about you boy Very bad There with Tom Dewey, he's listening to us talk. I called you we said 30 be 52 Over a square mile area in South repeat South, Vietnam. They just dropped their last bomb. We found the concentration of Viet Cong operation under the rush Hidden and we think that it's been the seat of the direction along their activity And there'll be some excitement on the television radio about the 52s, but We With our best advice that's the only way we can get them the fighter bomber took to take an area that big every Time without they're getting out So it moves now That's a good faster up before the flight this morning You also thought we ought to prove Westmoreland's request for these troops He needs out there to protect these bases because we're not going to be able to protect them south And it looks like I think it's to raise is a At the moment I don't know what that layered it uh as the uh off his rocker Actually the statement To protect our national interest and personally we have 12,800 up months there Down there makes about a little better than three to two because the advisors we have so many advisors and We have so many services and we're building air ports cbs and everything else and we got about seven eight thousand combat air people that In our air operation. We've got about 12 13 thousand to combat on the ground We'll move those up that's out of the 54 Out of 54,000 roughly got 20 to 30 We're moving it up to 70 to 75 And out of that, I would guess we'll get another eight or 10 thousand combat Now those combats will Go out We'll try to keep them distance where they can't lob their mortars in for three miles We'll constantly be on patrol We'll release an equal amount south Vietnamese. We only got four to one now To do the actual fighting that when they get caught when they get in trouble If they're going to get wiped out they call us we'll come to their rescue They did that last week westmoreland said I got the authority to do it. It's emergency and I'm going to authorize it Do you want to cancel it? You can cancel I came back and said hell no, I'm not going to cancel it, but I just hate to see 1200 american boys involved But this is no Sunday school picnic and you're on the ground and I can't tell a commander on the ground that He's got to let his people get wiped out or let his allies get wiped out. That's why we haven't there. So I'll be glad to do that if I can stay out of the way I don't want the Vietnamese North Vietnamese are to tell china and I haven't been to meet yet today We don't get something out about what happened But I don't want them the damn state department announcement the other day that we had discretionary authority to protect yourself which is That's implied in every operation You don't send a general out a bunch of damn troops and tell him and he got to get killed before he answers So uh, uh, we That's all that happened. I have mission in order. I have an aspiration order since he went out there Westmoreland went out there From west point because he's the best general We'll take off people and buy those people and resist aggression He's not going to get in there in the front line with american troops unless he has to if he does He's not going to let him get killed And that's that simple now. They ask his damn fool mcloskey old state department. They ask you like you're talking about lair Ask you quit beating your wife either way. Yeah, it's in trouble. They said as westmoreland got authority Keep our american bars and getting killed answers. Yes. Well, uh, wendy johnson give him that authority This damn fool says well, I don't know but i'm sure he got it and i'm sure he got it I'm sure he got it before they went out there. Well, they just arrived. You see a bunch of So then the headline read johnson enters new phase combat war in vietnam So when I looked at the damn paper, I called up and said who's smoking marijuana around here I haven't been in touch with westmoreland. I'm supposed to know what's happening And think I do Well, nobody is they shouldn't order of any kind So I came in the next morning and I said here's the statement. I want you to put it. You let them o'clock breathe No order's been issued There's no change in the situation this man has authority he's always had and We're not directing anybody into combat But if anybody needs to combat they're ready and they'll be prepared to give them the count of themselves So I issued that statement then they wrote the story a great frustration great difference in opinion The government right hand out of dictation That's what's written. That's the press and they got three stories where they ought to had any Follow me meaning to you so that you on this team Your country and a good many of these boys. I'm told a republican I don't think they use good judgment in their party, but they have in their country and they out there fighting And I think you ought to know the facts Now here's a paragraph of a Composential memo from a general good past who breathed out an hour last night I met with him two hours in his office Gettysburg I reviewed the that amount of the essential points of westmoreland's message Setting out his concept and his analysis for additional needs for us forces in south vietnam Of course that's Comment as requested by the president I went into full detail and gave him all the matters of how they would be involved The mobile divisions and how to provide additional brigades for use in the coastal base area That's the first 75,000 that's an additional 20,000. We've already ordered in But he's got requests for a good many more thousands That we have an act just to getting judgments tonight in our Has had a lot more experience. I haven't very frankly. I get about it did a judgment is from him on these matters I do from my joint chiefs and he's always careful and always reasonable And I think highly experienced And I think more so than my own man got I have now are considered to matter. That's a first question to consider. He said is what is the end of all this can be He commented we have now Appeal to the board In south vietnam and therefore We have got to the wind uncle For this purpose Simply holding on or simply sitting passively in static areas is never going to surprise He added there's no use building bases if you're not going to protect them and if you're not going to use them The only reason for creating them is to make it possible to take the offensive and to try to clear as many areas as possible That's what we did serve to He thought we should not only support vietnamese forces in action But he thought that we should undertake offensive operations ourselves After some further discussion he indicated that he believed westmoreland's recommendation should be supported He was strongly impressed by westmoreland's