NSAM 263

[Bill Cheslock]

Bill, Peter Dale Scott is a member of this Forum, I will send him a P/M and ask if he would contribute to this thread.

I am a little surprised at the general lack of comment on this matter. Perhaps if I had posted a cropped, blurred Nix frame claiming it showed Ritchie Cunningham, and the Fonz discharging blunderbuses from the storm drain instead..................

Stephen

Not only is there a difference between NSAM 263 and 273, which shows

more of an aggressive apporach to Vietnam days after the assassination, but

the draft of 273 wasn't as aggressive as the final NSAM.

In "JFK And Vietnam," John Newman writes that the draft for NSAM 273,

dated November 21, 1963, was not as aggressive towards Vietnam as the final

edition of that NSAM was. For example, Newman writes that McGeorge Bundy

stated that Johnson "held stronger views on the war than Kennedy did"

and this is why the final NSAM was stronger. ( p. 445).

Newman states that the revision of paragraph seven was substantive.

It was on the operations against North Vietnam. This revision, Newman continues,

was the most significant of all the changes made to Bundy's first draft of 273.

The entire first part of the sentence from the draft NSAM-- which mentioned who

the operations were against, as well as the specific wording that the plan would be

to develop South Vietnamese resources--was missing. The paragraph (7) now

read:

7. Planning should include different levels of possible increased activity, and in

each instance there should be estimates of such factors as:

A. Resulting damage to North Vietnam;

B. The plausibility of denial;

C. Possible North Vietnamese retaliation;

D. Other international reaction.

Plans should be submitted promptly for approval by higher authority. (pp 445-446).

This part, number 7, was not in Kennedy's NSAM 263, but was

put into NSAM 273, after the assassination. This literally escalalted hostilities against North Vietnam.

Johnson was misleading the American people when he said that he would continue

Kennedy's policy. Perhaps using the word "misleading" is too mild of a word in this

context.

Bill C