Mar. 9, 1964 - Defense Secretary Robert McNamara (left) barnstormed the South Vietnamese countryside today to dramatize America’s commitment to support General Nguyen Khanh (center) and his new Government in their anti-Communist war effort.
McNamara and Gen. Maxwell Taylor (right), Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spent the afternoon shaking hands with wizened old village men, patting children’s heads, jumping in and out of helicopters, and shaking more hands.
McNamara was genial and almost folksy. The resemblance to a political campaign tour was manifest. “We would make a good team,” Khanh said, amid backslapping and joking.
“The main thing we want to emphasize,” McNamara told reporters, “is that Khanh has the full and complete support of President Johnson and our whole Government, and I want to let his people know this.”
It has become clear by the second day of the Americans’ visit that a main goal is to press the campaign to build Khanh’s stature as national leader in the hope of preventing another coup d’état.
The official party visited three towns in the Mekong Delta, where the Viet Cong insurgents are strongest. Escort aircraft and armed helicopters accompanied the officials, although bodyguards were forced aside when Khanh and McNamara pushed through the village crowds.
Tragedy marred the tour when one of the helicopters crashed from a low altitude near Hoa Hao. Two American enlisted men were killed.
McNamara, who was not immediately told of the crash, later issued a statement saying: “This plane was providing protection to my party over enemy territory. I am grieved beyond words.”
Before taking off from Saigon’s airport shortly after noon, McNamara, Taylor, and their party sat through a four-hour briefing at American Military Assistance Command headquarters.
McNamara refused to discuss proposals to carry South Vietnam’s anti-Communist war into North Vietnam. “The first thing to do is to overcome the insurgency here,” he said.
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