Return to Fascinating Figures “McNamara was absolutely horrified” You can read other Moments from the Vietnam War. In this 1971 interview, part of the ADST collection courtesy of the National Archives and Records Service at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, Ball recounts his lonely opposition to escalating the Vietnam War, starting in 1964. Eventually there would be more than 540,000 U.S. Army and Marine battalions in South Vietnam at this time. battalions for commitment in South Vietnam, a decision that led to a massive escalation of the war. On July 22, just three weeks after Ball submitted his memo, LBJ authorized a total of 44 U.S. Johnson ultimately accepted McNamara’s recommendation. While Ball recommended a negotiated settlement, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara urged the President to “expand promptly and substantially” the U.S. The attack on Da Nang and the weakness of the Saigon regime convinced Johnson that he had to do something to stop the communists. air base at Da Nang came under attack by the Viet Cong for the first time. No one can assure you that we can beat the Viet Cong, or even force them to the conference table on our terms, no matter how many hundred thousand white, foreign (U.S.) troops we deploy.” Ball advised that the United States not commit any more troops, restrict the combat role of those already in place, and seek to negotiate a way out of the war.Īs Ball was submitting his memo, the U.S. On July 1, 1965, Ball submitted a memo to President Johnson titled “A Compromise Solution for South Vietnam.” It began bluntly: “The South Vietnamese are losing the war to the Viet Cong. However, he is most known for his opposition to the escalation of the Vietnam War. Ambassador to the United Nations in 1968, where he passionately criticized the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. He supported the 1963 overthrow of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem and served as U.S. George Ball was the Under Secretary of State for Economic and Agricultural Affairs in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations.
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