Session: 1234567891011121314151617         Page 467468469470471472473474475476477478479480481482483484485486487488489490491492493494495496497498499500 of 755

I just think he went too far there and he went too far, obviously, with Vietnam. I don't know whether I mentioned to you that he sent me out to Vietnam.

You went in 1964? Earlier than that?

Oh, I'd have to look it up. He sent three of us out. I was supposed to be the leader.

Who were the other two people?

Palmer Hoyt, editor of the Denver Post and Frank Starzel, who was the top man on the Associated Press. Hoyt I knew; Starzel I had met at a Gridiron dinner or something like that, but I didn't know him. We met, I guess, in Vietnam. I went out independently of the other two. We all went out separately, and got there--met and spent a week out there, for no--just to sort of sniff around and get the feel of the thing and came back and talked to Johnson about it.

Could you recount here a little bit about what you talked about with him and what was happening at that time in Vietnam and his responses to it?

Well, at that time in Vietnam we were not doing very well.

Kennedy's plans had sort of failed at that point. Right?

Yes. We were still building up troop strength, and it was an enormous operation