FELE cow TEL CON Harriman Ball August 20 1963 4 55pm Ball called concerning the possible Saigon situation breaking wide open and the pending arrival of Cabot was inclined to think that perhaps Cabot should not arrive in the middle of the repression because he couldn't present his credentials and would be quite useless there without them Harriman was in complete agreement saying that Cabot was not scheduled to arrive fOr six days and that he saw no reason for any Change at this time Harriman expressed the thought that it was hard to know exactly what was going to happen and felt the whole thing unbelievable that Diem could be so stupid and that Noiting had always taken the position that disaster would happen if anything were to happen to him however Harriman did not feel this was true Thought that as much contingency planning as jpossible had been done LBJ LIBRARY This document is from the holdings of The National Security Archive Suite 701 Gelman Library The George Washington University 2130 H Street NW Washington D C 20037 Phone 202 994-7000 Fax 202 994-7005 nsarchiv@gwu edu Read related article New Light in a Dark Corner Evidence on the Diem Coup in South Vietnam November 1963 2020-11-01