DISCUSSION WITH THE PRESIDENT AT 1:00 O'CLOCK, FEBRUARY 26TH; NO ONE WAS PRESEN

Created: 2/27/1964

OCR scan of the original document, errors are possible

MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD

SUBJECT! Discussion with tha Pr**ld*nt0 o'clock.h; No one was present

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Briefly discussed the trip to South Vietnam. President Indicated hs expectedould be with the McNamara/JTaylor group. Ho did not specifically asko norsk himaould. Itoregone conclusion In his mindas going and ho was looking forward to an objective and independent judgment of tho situation in South Vietnam from ma.

He expect, me to brief Eisenhower inar future. Ha had

so told Eia*nhower. Ha did not wish me topecial trip for tolasuggestedoat with Eisenhower aa aoon aa convenient. iifrip waa timed,xpected it wouldould leaveMarch 4th, aea Eieonhower for about one day, proceedplan* to Honolulu and join the McNamara partyTh*ood ehoold brief

Eisenhower at tha esrlieat convenient time.M5rrs

old the Pr**ld*nt we had completed an extended CORONA_

coverag* of thanion involving th* photographing

Soviet landma.e. I

Thla gave ma an opportunity to dtacnaaT

thoevelopment. ald that th* photography had not baanbut th** that the Soviet* wera alowlng up ortractionft icbm altea and ware emphaalaing the! construction of

[knew that through

aatelllte photography w* war* learning th* exact location of xnlaail* altea. H* waa not relocatinghat ho waa doing, ha was hardening them, and thia waa coating tham an anormou. amount of money. The Presidentreatt in th* *ubj*ct of .stallit. photographyaked for anime to go over tha program, tha picture, and oth*rH*uggastod perhapse was flying eomeo with him and w* could apand an hour or so together on this on* aubject. This h* felt mightood Idea.

ACTIONt Remind me to follow thia up and to make arrangementsresidential trip in the near future.

4.hen discussed the surfacing of the OXCART and advised him that Chairman Vinson and Senator Russell felt that their Commltteee should ba full/ Informed by them and thay wished to do thia tn advance of tha announcement and also stated that Mr. Cannon wlshsd ma to meat with his Subcommittee prior to tha announcement and that George Mahon wlehed to Inform hia committee prior to tha announcement. ecommended that this be done bdt it ba timed so tha Committees would be advlssd practically concurrently with tha announcement so that tha prase would not get tha aewe before the Preaident announcedald that if, for instance, ha wee to make tbs announcement Saturday morning (which ha did not confirm ae thehan all of the Congressional action* should be taken Saturday morning. Thus tha Congressmen would know in advance but not so much in advene* that the press would get hold of the atory. Tha Preaident waa vary much against this. Ha fait that if tha announcement was mado on Saturday, wa could inform tha Commltteee ontated that this would causa the Committee Chairman and tbareat deal of trouble. With this Johnson plcksd up the phone to call Senator Russell; however the call was not returnedid notinal decision.

ACTION) entioned the question to Bundy andid that ha would have to gat to the President andecision. Until thia dseialoa la forthcoming w* should take alaolutary.no action with respect to tha BUI. Bundylscusaed tha problem several times during tha day,rief diecaselon at Mrs. JVF.vidence whan the President was there. However,d not think lt appropriate to discuss tt with tha President

r$ *b* particular occasion at Mrs. Kennedy's residence.

(C) should be followed up with Bundy today. t

rant

S.han referred to the

I Thia Item refers tu wisns Soviets iron Cubs, enbr

iing over or the 3AM sites to them. atd thereigh probsbUlty that tha SAM sites would be placed in the hands of tha Cubans who would have abaoluta control over them.ald that other evidence convinced us there wouldontinuing withdrawal of Soviets from Cuba, butotal withdrawal; however we could not gauge the exact numbers. aid that this, to my opinion, represented probably tha next important crisis that we would face because- Castro in his ratherbut long press confarsac* had ralssd the question of our penetrating Illegally Cuban air space. herefore recommended that thia subject be dlacuased with Seerstariae of State and Dsfense; that they be ordered to prepare contingency plans forituation, otherwise w* would ba confronted with an smsrgsacy.

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all tha llghta In town would ba on, and our courae of action would have to avolv* undar an atmosphere of amargancy.raaaadoint hard. Tha Praaldant aakedad dlacuaaad tt with McNamara and Buekoldad. on manyutholly preoccupied with th* problem at hand and had navar com* to grip* with tble particular hypothetical but poaalble altuatlon. Tha Praaldant gave ma no satisfactory anawar aa to any action ha would take. In fact, ha aaemed mora preoccupied with th* withdrawal of Sovleta and tha number* remaining' than ha did with theaa confronting him with.

6. We war* thany Secretary Ru*k. Ilarrtman. EdgarMr. Calhoun and engagedong dl*cu**lon on Ghana. Kalaarcoavaraationa with Nkrumah and hla abaoluta and poattiva Insiatanc*atop tho antl-American actlona is hla country or alaa ha, Kalaar.iflrfl,hundar tha ellmata that Nkrumah had

IIIHHlWnnii 'uovalopadcould notiagle cent toward additionalhana. Nkrumah saomad to agro* aadha waa written; Pre aidant Jo -

Tho Praaldant as had Kale or what ha wished

to do. Kalaar stated that h*ontract that hadn broken by Ghana daaplta th* exasperating *ituBtlon and that ha intandad to fulfill hla contract. Ha reviewed th* altuatlon about a* followa: Volta Dam will0 million of which Ghana la putting up half and th* other half ia being put up by AID, th* World Bank, tha Bxltlah, and tha Export-Import Bank In varying amount* and for differing componenta orf tha project. Tho aluminum plant will coat0 million,0 millionn put up by th* Export-Import Bank andillion bo th* Kaiaer-Raynold* Syndicate) but all of this, la guaranteed by th* Unltad Statea Government. Tha0 million in tha form of loans. th*r* ar* no grant* made. Tha power that Kalaar wlUepresenting half of th* power generated at tha dam, will pay for tha sntlre project Inear*. Kalaar stated that ha could not forecaet th* permanenc* of hi* poaltlon in th* project. It waa entirely poaalble that Nkrumah would take it ovar. Thisisk andlou* problem to htm because h* waa proc**dlng with manufacturing cutlets In Europe to taills* th* raw aluminum produced. Daaplt* thia rlak he wa* going forward. Th* Praaldant waa noncommittal

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Later Governor Harrlman atatad ha wanted to gat together with ma toonchialon on our policy concerning tha Volta ProJ*ct. H* was In favor of proceedinghara war* many who wtahad to cut and run. Ha sensed that X

would favor etaying with tha project. What ha waa seekingartner to

support Ma poaltlon.

Original document.

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