Foreign Relations: The War Council

Hour after hour for three days last week, President Johnson sat with top military, diplomatic, political and intelligence advisers in an extraordinary council of war.

Occasion for the sessions was the return from a five-day inspection trip to South Viet Nam of Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, Ambassador-designate Henry Cabot Lodge, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Earle Wheeler.

During that trip, McNamara received from both South Viet Nam's Premier Nguyen Cao Ky and the U.S. field commander, General William Westmoreland requests that the number of American troops in Viet Nam, now at about 75,000, be considerably...

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