McNamara Notes Increasingly “Flagrant” V.C. Operations

Apr. 26, 1965 - Defense Secretary Robert McNamara reported today that North Vietnamese aggressive operations against South Vietnam had “grown progressively more flagrant.”

He said the North Vietnamese infiltration of soldiers and supplies for the Viet Cong “continues to play a vital role” in the war, apparently despite bombardment of the infiltration routes.

McNamara added, however, that the “carefully controlled air strikes” had effectively impeded the insurgency and that these would “continue as necessary.”

Extreme care has been taken to avoid civilian casualties, McNamara said, “and to the best of our knowledge, there have been few, if any.”

The Defense Secretary made an extensive report on the military situation in Vietnam during a nationally televised news conference. The report was, in effect, a prelude to the scheduled news conference tomorrow with President Johnson.

Against a background of maps and aerial reconnaissance photographs set up on easels behind him, McNamara spoke for 16 minutes on “recent evidence from newly captured prisoners and documents.”At one point, he picked up and displayed a new machine gun of Chinese Communist manufacture that he said had been captured from the Viet Cong.

McNamara sought to quash speculation about the possible use of nuclear weapons by U.S. forces in Vietnam. 

“It is perfectly apparent,” McNamara said, that “there is no military requirement for nuclear weapons” in the present and foreseeable situation in Vietnam.

“No useful purpose can be served by speculation on remote contingencies,” he added. 

McNamara revised upward from a previous maximum of 34,000 the number of “main force” Viet Cong-North Vietnamese troops now in South Vietnam, putting the new figure at 38,000 to 46,000.

Evidence obtained within the last 30 days, he said, indicated “it is probable” that there were “at least 10,000 infiltrations” from North Vietnam in 1964.

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