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Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-RH-01
In this interview Hilsman discusses his initial interactions with John F. Kennedy [JFK]; Hilsman’s appointment to the Department of State during the Kennedy Administration; Foreign Service officers and “hot-seat” jobs; issues with Dean Rusk as Secretary of State; reorganizing the Bureau of Intelligence and Research; the flow of information between the State Department and the White House; staffing the State Department; the use of satellite intelligence; John A. McCone; working with and around Robert F. Kennedy [RFK]; JFK, RFK, and Vietnam; Edward G. Lansdale; Maxwell D. Taylor; the connection between Vietnam and Laos; U.S. action in Laos; the Buddhist crisis in Vietnam; the impact of WWII on Hilsman and JFK’s generation; and the 1963 coup in Vietnam, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-WAH-03
In this interview, Harriman discusses American opinion on negotiations in Laos; U.S. negotiations and objectives in Indonesia; American relations with Achmed Sukarno; friction between the State Department and the Pentagon over who should control the situation in Vietnam, civilians or the military; Ngo Dinh Diem and the military coup that overthrew him; problems with and for newspapermen in Vietnam; and his opinion on where the United States went wrong in Vietnam, among other issues.
Sound recording
Papers of John F. Kennedy. Presidential Papers. President's Office Files.
JFKPOF-MTG-104-004
Sound recording of a meeting held on August 15, 1963, between President John F. Kennedy and newly appointed United States Ambassador to South Vietnam Henry Cabot Lodge. Shortly before Ambassador Lodge is to depart for Vietnam, he and President Kennedy discuss plans he would like to implement as Ambassador and his opinions on the political situation in Vietnam with President of South Vietnam Ngo Dinh Diem and the Nhus. Photographs are taken of President Kennedy and Ambassador Lodge and the recording continues with a discussion that is difficult to hear between President Kennedy and Ambassador Lodge concerning Republican Party politics and New Hampshire. After Lodge departs, there is a brief telephone conversation with Special Counsel to the President Theodore Sorensen on education legislation; only President Kennedy’s side of this conversation can be heard. One segment of the recording totaling 38 seconds has been removed in accordance with Section 3.4 (b) (1), (3) of Executive Order 12958. This sound recording has been excerpted from Tape 104, which contains additional sound recording(s) preceding and following this one. See Related Records to access Tape 104 in its entirety.