page_title: McNamara–Taylor mission
section_title: Meeting with Diệm
hierarchical_section_title: McNamara–Taylor mission / Expedition / Meeting with Diệm
caption_attribution_description: Cropped image showing South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem ARC Identifier: 542189 Item from Record Group 342: Records of U.S. Air Force Commands, Activities, and Organizations, 1900 - 2000 Part of Series: Black and White Photographs of U.S. Air Force and Predecessors' Activities, Facilities, and Personnel, Domestic and Foreign, 1930 - 1975
context_page_description: The McNamara–Taylor mission was a 10-day fact-finding expedition to South Vietnam in September 1963 by the Kennedy administration to review progress in the battle by the Army of the Republic of Vietnam and its American advisers against the communist insurgency of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam. The mission was led by US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and General Maxwell D. Taylor, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
  The mission came in the wake of the Krulak–Mendenhall mission in which United States Marine Corps General Victor Krulak and State Department official Joseph Mendenhall gave diametrically differing outlooks on the military and political situation in Vietnam. Upon their return, McNamara and Taylor recommended measures intended to restrict the regime of President Ngô Đình Diệm, feeling that Diệm was pre-occupied with suppressing dissent rather than fighting the communists. The measures also sought to pressure Diệm to respect human rights more.
context_section_description: On September 29, McNamara, Taylor, Harkins, and Lodge visited Diệm, having decided against delivering a bluntly worded letter from Kennedy. Diệm was accompanied by his Secretary of State Nguyễn Đình Thuận. Diệm spoke passionately in defense of his government and chain smoked as he walked around the room pointing to maps.  After a two-hour monologue by Diệm, McNamara was finally able to speak. He stressed American concerns that political unrest was undermining anti-Viet Cong military operations. McNamara emphasized the difficulties being caused by anti-Buddhist repressions were creating for Kennedy's support of South Vietnam due to the arousal of negative public opinion against Diệm. He pointed out that Diệm's foreign minister Vũ Văn Mẫu and his ambassador in Washington Trần Văn Chương had resigned, and that Saigon University was closed. McNamara fell short of asking Diệm to remove the Nhus; this was a matter Washington had left to his and Lodge's discretion. McNamara went on to say that Washington did not see value in supporting a government which could not command the confidence of its citizens, but his comments seemed to have little impact on Diệm. Diệm cut off McNamara and asserted that "Vietnam will be a model democracy" in a few years time. He asserted that this had been facilitated by the Strategic Hamlet Program and was shown in the high turnout in the recent legislative elections. Lodge became irritated at this point and derisively pointed out that Diệm's legislators had achieved increased votes because ARVN troops had been bussed around to vote multiple times at various polling booths. Diệm himself had risen to power in a fraudulent referendum supervised by Nhu in which he was credited with 133% of the vote in Saigon.
  The awkward silence was broken when McNamara raised the issue of Madame Nhu. Diệm was a bachelor so Madame Nhu was the de facto First Lady, living in the palace. Dubbed the Dragon Lady due to her acerbic nature, she had a long history of anti-American remarks. McNamara complained about her "ill-advised and unfortunate declarations". He removed a newspaper clipping from his pocket in which she was quoted as calling some US officers as "acting like little soldiers of fortune" which she claimed had caused the Americans to pursue a "confused policy". McNamara said that such comment hurt the bilateral relationship and that the American public would be less generous in sending their officers to support the anti-communist counterinsurgency. One of the Americans lost his composure and asked Diệm whether "there was not something the government could do to shut her up."
  Diệm appeared to be shocked and demoralised by the stinging question. Lodge pointedly claimed that Madame Chiang Kai-shek had been pivotal in the defeat of the Chinese Nationalists by the communists of Mao Zedong in 1949 and alluded that Madame Nhu could have a similar effect. Diệm dismissed this and said that US policy was being undermined by failures in analysis of the situation that he claimed were fuelled by distorted attacks by American journalists in Saigon. He asserted that Madame Nhu's membership in the National Assembly as a citizen of a "free country" allowed her to express her sentiments, alleging that "one cannot deny a lady the right to defend herself when she has been unjustly attacked."
  Diệm went on to make sensational claims against the Buddhist majority that had his visitors taken aback. He asserted that his kindness towards Buddhists had helped to cause the civil unrest by encouraging them to seek what he felt were special rights. He claimed that the number of Buddhist pagodas in the country had doubled during his rule and said that it was due to his government's funding. For twenty minutes he repeatedly charged the Buddhists of partaking in orgies in the pagodas on a regular basis, without offering proof. He then alleged that "some American services in Saigon" were plotting against him. Taylor later noted that Diệm had not realised the seriousness of the meeting and the warnings of the American delegation, recalling that "Y
caption: President Ngô Đình Diệm of South Vietnam
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