Saturday, October 5, 1963: Vietnam

President Kennedy approves the withdrawal of 1,000 military advisers from Vietnam, where some 16,000 are serving. (The decision has since generated considerable speculation about what policy Kennedy might have pursued in Vietnam had he not been assassinated.)

* Summary from World History Project: @

* Summary from Mary Ferrell Foundation: @

* Memorandum from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Taylor) and the Secretary of Defense (McNamara) to the President (October 2, 1963, from "Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963," U.S. State Department): @

* Record of Action No. 2472, Taken at the 519th Meeting of the National Security Council (October 2, from FRUS): @

* Memorandum for the Files of a Conference With the President (October 5, from FRUS): @

* National Security Action Memorandum No. 263 (October 11, from FRUS): @

* White House tapes of withdrawal discussions (from Miller Center, University of Virginia): @

* "Mac Finds Out What's Gone Wrong: Big U.S. Team Probes the Climactic Mess in Vietnam" (Life magazine, October 11, 1963, page 22): @

* "Going to Withdraw from Vietnam?" (from mcadams.posc.mu.edu): @

* "Lessons in Disaster: McGeorge Bundy and the Path to War in Vietnam" (Gordon M. Goldstein, 2008): @ 

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