McNamara warns Johnson that communists are gaining strength in South Vietnam
Following a visit to South Vietnam Defense Secretary Robert McNamara reports in a memorandum to President Lyndon B.Johnson that the South Vietnamese government of Nguyen Cao Ky is surviving but not acquiring wide support or generating actions.He said that Viet Cong recruiting successes coupled with a continuing heavy infiltration of North Vietnamese forces indicated that the enemy can be expected to enlarge his present strength of 110 battalion equivalents to more than 150 battalion equivalents by the end of 1966.McNamara said that U.S.
policymakers faced two options to seek a compromise settlement and keep further military commitments to a minimum or to continue to press for a military solution which would require substantial bombing of North Vietnam.In conclusion McNamara warned that there was no guarantee of U.S.military success and that there was a real possibility of a strategic stalemate saying that U.S.killed in action can be expected to reach 1000 a month.
In essence McNamara cautioned Johnson that sending additional troops was not likely to prevent the stalemate.In the end however Johnson chose to seek a military solution.By 1969 there were more than 500000 U.S.
troops in Vietnam.
