With the coup d'état and assassination of President Diem on November 2, 1963, the Kennedy Administration faced a new situation in South Vietnam. President Kennedy ordered a "full-scale review" of U.S. policy and on 20 November his principal foreign policy advisers (numbering 45 persons in total) met in Honolulu, Hawaii. The advisers at the meeting were optimistic, concluding there was "an encouraging outlook for the principle objective of joint U.S.-Vietnamese policy in South Vietnam – the successful prosecution of the war against the Viet Cong communists." Also, the U.S. Ambassador to South Vietnam Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. and Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV) commander General Paul D. Harkins reported "excellent working relations" with the leadership of the new South Vietnamese government. The advisers concurred with plans, as stated in National Security Action Memorandum 263 of October 11, 1963 to withdraw 1,000 U.S. military personnel from South Vietnam by the end of 1963, and most American soldiers by the end of 1965.