Nov. 19, 1963 - Henry Cabot Lodge (left), U.S. Ambassador to South Vietnam, arrived in Honolulu by plane today with General Paul D. Harkins (center), head of the U.S. military advisory group in South Vietnam. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara and General Maxwell D. Taylor, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, were due from Washington later. Secretary of State Dean Rusk is to arrive tomorrow. The American officials will discuss U.S. policy toward the new military-backed provisional Government of South Vietnam and a possible withdrawal of some American troops there. In an airport interview, Mr. Lodge called “absolutely fantastic” any idea of a negotiated truce between South Vietnam and the Communist guerrillas in South Vietnam. Ambassador Lodge is schedule to arrive in Washington Monday to confer with President Kennedy on South Vietnam. Meanwhile, it was reported in Saigon today that Communist terrorists have been sent into the city to blow up Government and U.S. installations and kill American personnel. Eager to discredit the new regime, they have thrown usual caution aside and are recruiting any persons who say they support the Communist Viet Cong cause. These people are being taken into D Zone for three days training in explosives handling and then sent back into Saigon. Bomb explosions in South Vietnam’s capital are occurring at the rate of at least one a day. One explosion Sunday night in a downtown Saigon open-air restaurant wounded three U.S. servicemen.
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