or i DATES CATEGORIES mam JOHN F - 9 ENNEDY F - 5 Oct 1963 DIEM 7 MCime JUmi a a h DIEM gp a Fri Ei E I 121 3 On or about October 5 1963 when the telegram of October 5 and 6 ware sent gto Saigon MC CONE was called over by WY and met privately with EWDY and the Attorney General mass F WY and took the position that the CIA should take a hands off positioh as far as the'assassination of DIEM was concerned FE CONE ltl felt that the President agreed with'mw position despite the fact that he had great resen vations concerning DIEM and his conduct I urged him to try to bring all the pressure we a could on DIEM to change his ways to encourage more support throughout the country My pre cise words to the President and I renenher them very clearly was that Mr President if I was manager- of a baseball team I had one pitcher I'd keep him in the box whether- he was a good pitcher or not By that I was saying that if DIEM was removed we would have not one coup but we would have a succession of coupe and political disorder in Vietnam and it might last several years as indeed it did So it was for that reason that I felt there would be SOURCE smart R DANSON hearing 8801 Friday June 6 3 975 McCone 1 701 1 2 of 5 DATE FILE pp 62 32 29 June 1975 DATES - CATEGORIES Card 2 of 2 OCCURRENCE more stability if DIEM could be persuaded to orange his ways than remve him and hope that some group of generals could run the country better SOURCE 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