 you are your lander. Hello, Mr. Congressman? Yes. Just a moment. Congressman General Porter, line one, and I'm prepared to take it if you're very smart. Thank you. Jerry, hope I'm not... Yes, Mr. President. Fine, I hope I'm not bothering you, but I talked to John McCormick and I've called Mike Mansfield and I wanted to, I would have you all come in, but you're all busy trying to win an election and don't want to be here all year. I thought, though, that I would like to report what happened. I had Fulbright in this morning. There are very few senators in town. I went in some link with Dirksen and so forth. May I interrupt you a minute? Yes. I heard just an hour ago that you had developed some problems with your previous operation and something to do with your throat. Honestly, and most sincerely, hope that everything will work out 100%. I hope it will and believe it will. The throat condition is a little growth about the size of a grape on your vocal cords and that comes to all of us that use our voice a good deal and it's been there but it disappears, but it hasn't disappeared in the last two, three months and sometimes they're malignant and they want to get it out and look at it. The second thing was they had a cube in my side and it was rather long incision and when they took it out, it just kind of scarred over but didn't heal thoroughly. As a consequence your intestines are pressing to come out about where your belt is right at the end of the incision and when you are active in climbing steps and shaking hands, you're twisting your body constantly without your feet moving so it's grown from maybe the size of a quarter to the size of a dollar and it could break through there and if you did you'd have problems and they don't want to wait on it and they decided back in Thailand and we confirmed it after talking to the male people that we ought to do it just as soon as it can. They want me to take a few days, ten days, maybe two weeks to get in the best condition I can before they do both operations and they want to do them both at once. We think it'll be minor and we hope it will and I'm grateful for your good wishes and it'll mean a good deal to me. I told everybody I almost want him to move over but I've had better breaks than he's had and maybe even generalized now we all got those problems, we just have to live with them. What I wanted to talk to you about was this Manila thing First of all, I think you have enough of background, I don't need to waste a lot of time on you but Key had some problems and Key was wanting to come to the United States. In addition, Pac had some problems in Korea and he rather definitely felt that we ought to be very strong and very in our efforts out there. Australia and New Zealand both got elections on November the 26th and they've got their problems. The Philippines is very active, he was very much against our Vietnam effort until he got elected and he got elected and had a little responsibility and he saw that his own country was in danger and the communist movement starts resurrecting itself there the net of it was that Pac began insisting with our Secretary of State that we try to get together and the Philippines when he came here he pursued it further he jumped the gun a little bit by announcing the date by saying this particular time we would have preferred after we got a congress out and our bill signed in November middle of December but they got their election in Australia and New Zealand November 26th and they run there, I don't run and they didn't figure I was up and we didn't want to wait until the first of the year because Pac's got a lot of things that got to be faced up to before then and Westmoreland did too so the net of it was we called him up there, we didn't bill it as a war conference it wasn't but we had very thorough briefings from the South Vietnamese and Westmoreland both of whom outlined some of their views they needed what they had to have and it became a joint responsibility which up till now they have not embraced too much they did agree that we would have to have more people and that while we wouldn't get into numbers with all of us running there that those closest to the danger feared the aggression the most and we came away I think with one definite thing instead of Uncle Sam fighting this by himself there are seven nations and the six closest to it are very concerned about it now we've transmitted that around the world and I think that message has gotten through loud and clear second thing is we all agreed that we do or die that we would not retreat and we would continue to resist aggression and we would stop it and that there would be no give up there would be no listening of will there betting all of our intelligence shows that to Cusigin is saying and they're saying and other things that the message is going to rise up and throw us out of power and I just frankly said well I don't know maybe I lose 50 seats but when they call the vote it'll be 404 there's 17 and it'll be 87 to 2 that's not voting on this thing and I'm not running and that's got damage what you got to get out of your system and they all get that pretty clear and we broadcast that message that we united that we'll resist we all agreed that everybody ought to try to do his own planning and have some growth there Korea has got a 8% growth this year and we went into their economic problems Jean Black followed me by one day and he's going into each of these capitals now and he's going into the world bank and some of their development planning and loans through the world bank and export import and things of that nature and finally we Gromyco told me and a good many others are of the opinion that you know some people say crooked they think everybody else is and they say crooked themselves they think everybody else is and they can't understand why we'd spend billions of dollars 20-25 billion a year over there they just can't believe we'd do it and I said we'll now the moment that you will get out of there and the moment the violence in South Vietnam ceases we will certainly reciprocate by removing our people just like we did in the Dominican Republic and you can take these bases and we'll convert them into industrial operations or into education units or anything else and we can get our people out of there six months after we agree A that you've withdrawn and aggression ceased and B violence has ceased and that gives Russia something to work on she said she believed that we were good intentions but other people just couldn't believe it and North Vietnam came now we think that Russia is getting a little stronger with the noise than the Chinese because of all their difficulty and we wanted to make that offer we don't think we yielded one damn thing we don't want to fight one aggression ceases and one violence ceases we don't want to live out there because we like the climate and so that came out of it then I went to the other countries and we saw over 5 million people they were all friendly and happy we had some communists had 60 of them that were ordered from New York before we ever left put up their signs and say they were for Bobby in 68 and say we better go home and USA stay out but do we expected that and I guess we had a thousand perhaps in the Philippines and maybe a couple hundred in Sydney but we had a million people compared to 200 and it wasn't near as bad as Berkeley so the net of it was a very good trip now we got T to agree to take additional steps on his inflation to take additional steps to carry out our education and agricultural recommendations at Freyman's experts he's got a thousand agricultural experts so they produce their own food and their vaccinations and things at gardener's departments working he agreed to hold village and hamlet elections in 67 that's firm he agreed to hold national elections select president or prime minister within six months after the constitution's completed they think it'll be before the deadline in March he immediately setting up a group of David Lillianthal's type firms to start on his post war economy and the conversion of the military installations into how they can be on their own and make that work we got Malaysia to agreed to help them with some of their training and guerrilla stuff and they'll be sending people there and vice versa in due time when we get these other things behind us you'll find a good deal more a concern and fear and participation from the seven nations involved that is about the net of it First I want to thank you for calling and secondly I'm pleased to get this first hand report I think Mr. President that the American people are very impressed with the statements that have come this is the way I feel you know I feel that way I have no sympathy for these people who want to go back to Pearl Harbor think that the overwhelming majority of Americans believe exactly as you have said we're going to stay there until they stop their aggression their terror and their subversion and I don't think this is a matter in this election Mr. President and we know that I've asked one of them, I said to one leader do you know anything about the composition of the philosophies in the Senate and he said yes and I said well you think if Derson were elected and Morse were defeated that it would be a defeat for me Wilson told Cossigan he said they're going to rise up and throw Johnson out of power in November and then we can go on and Cossigan said well now let me tell you they'll cut his balls out and they'll take his necktie off and cut in his face but when they call a roll on the fence they'll be 87 to nut and they don't understand that and I think though that this pretty well showed them that the seven nations were together I wanted to get away from this just one Uncle Sam stuff that Fulbright Morrison talked about anyway that is the story and I am writing you a little note that you can use in your speeches or you can use for your own information but I thought I'd call you four top leaders before I took out I'm going to the ranch tomorrow and I'm going to have a pretty rigid died and the muscular development stuff for about ten days two weeks before they start this surgery and I'll be at the operation both of them will take less than an hour they don't think I'll have to be in the hospital over a few days and we never know what will develop and we the president we got to they want to be very cautious with it and I wanted you to know first hand because you got to go to this government like I haven't you get you you'll get your letter it'll go out tonight it's been tight now and I will talk to the four of yet Mike and Dirkson and you and McCormick I want to repeat reiterate with emphasis I hope to trust the deepest that I can say that everything goes well I know it will and God bless you thank you very much and same to you