<--PREV Doc #1299  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #1301 Document #1300; August 29, 1959 To Ngo Dinh Diem Series: EM, WHCF, Confidential File: State Department The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XX - The Presidency: Keeping the Peace Part VII: Berlin and the Chance for a Summit; March 1959 to August 1959 Chapter 18: "These extremist approaches"   Dear Mr. President: I am prompted to write to you personally as a result of recent allegations which reflected adversely on the United States aid program in Viet-Nam and on Viet-Nam itself.1 I want you to know that I regret these charges and the accompanying reflections on your government and people who have worked so valiantly under your leadership. If there have been deficiencies in the administration of the aid program attributable to American officials, they will be corrected, and I am sure you would take the same action as to matters under your control. I am pleased to note that in the investigations thus far concluded there have in fact been no findings of serious deficiencies of any kind. So far as the United States is concerned, the inquiries which have been held by two Committees of our Congress represent a useful means of bringing deficiencies to light. They also afford an opportunity to demonstrate instances where unwarranted allegations are not supported by the facts. I am confident that the inquiries in the case of the Viet-Nam program will in particular serve this latter purpose and that the base for our cooperation in the aid program and on other matters will rest on yet firmer ground.2 I trust that this will be as welcome to you as it is to me, and will compensate for the unpleasant aspects of what must have seemed to you a disheartening and inexplicable development. Ambassador Durbrow has now returned to Viet-Nam; he has brought with him my renewed confidence and also my good wishes to you and your countrymen.3 I recall very well our frank discussions of mutual problems, and feel much the richer in my appreciation of the problems of the people of Southeast Asia and Viet-Nam for having discussed them with you.4 It is a source of great satisfaction to know, as I do, that the Free World in general and the United States in particular have such a staunch friend as yourself in free Viet-Nam.5 With warm regard, Sincerely 1 A six-part series appearing in the Scripps-Howard newspaper chain from July 20 to July 25, had criticized the administration of the American aid program and had charged the Diem government with corruption and authoritarianism (State, Foreign Relations, 1958 - 1960, vol. I, Vietnam, p. 225, and New York Times, July 25, 31, 1959). The Secretary of State, mindful of President Diem’s "stout anti-communism" and his "well-known role as a good friend of the United States," had suggested that the President reassure Diem and the Vietnamese people of his "continuing warm regard" for them (Herter to Eisenhower, Aug. 25, 1959, same file as document). A copy of the State Department draft containing Eisenhower’s handwritten emendations is in ibid. A portion of this sentence, deleted from the draft, had stated that the allegation had "received somewhat sensational treatment in a section of our press." 2 The Scripps-Howard allegations of "serious waste" and "outrageous scandal" had prompted a congressional investigation of the aid program. The Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on State Department Organization and Public Affairs had held hearings on the charges July 30 - 31. The House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee No. 2 had held similar hearings August 11 - 14. Both subcommittees would order on-the-spot investigations of the administration of foreign aid in Vietnam (Congressional Quarterly Almanac, vol. XV, 1959, p. 730, and New York Times, Aug. 5, 14, 15, 1959; on the U.S. aid program in Vietnam see Ronald H. Spector, Advice and Support: The Early Years 1941 - 1960, in The United States Army in Vietnam, edited by David F. Trask [Washington, D.C., 1985], pp. 306 - 10). 3 Ambassador Durbrow had been recalled to the United States for the investigation (State, Foreign Relations, 1958 - 1960, vol. I, Vietnam, pp. 225 - 26, 239 - 42, and New York Times, July 31, 1959). 4 President Diem had visited the United States in 1957 (see no. 710). 5 For developments see no. 1371. Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. To Ngo Dinh Diem, 29 August 1959. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 1300. World Wide Web facsimile by The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission of the print edition; Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/presidential-papers/second-term/documents/1300.cfm <--PREV Doc #1299  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #1301

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