William Harvey King and Edward Lansdale

Lansdale with CIA Director Allen Dulles and United States Air Force Chief of Staff General Nathan F. Twining and CIA Deputy Director Lieutenant General Charles P. Cabell at the Pentagon in 1955.

Is it interesting that William Harvey King, who had been in charge of Operation Mongoose, and who was effectively sacked by John McCone after he had the mother of all bust-ups with RFK, was then sent to Rome to build up the Italian component of Operation Gladio?

Edward Lansdale is not altogether uninteresting either. In early 1961 he became the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Special Operations, and he briefed Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara on the nature of the war in Vietnam. He showed McNamara examples of primitive homemade Viet Cong weaponry, and explained that the war was more a political war than military. He said “It doesn’t take weapons and uniforms and lots of food to win. It takes ideas and ideals.” After 10 minutes McNamara abruptly ended the briefing with the words "Is that all?"

Also in 1961, Lansdale helped to publicize the story of Father Nguyễn Lạc Hoá, the "fighting priest" who had organized a crack militia, the Sea Swallows, from his village of anticommunist Chinese Catholic exiles. Lansdale recruited John M. Deutch to his first job in government, working as one of Robert McNamara's "Whiz Kids". Deutch would go on to become the Director of Central Intelligence for the CIA.

In October 1961 President Kennedy sent Lansdale on a fact-finding mission to Vietnam headed by General Maxwell Taylor and Walt Rostow.

In an early 1962 conversation between Lansdale and McNamara, he reportedly told McNamara, who was trying to develop a list of metrics to allow him to scientifically follow the progress of the war, that he needed to add an 'x-factor'; McNamara wrote that down on his list in pencil and asked what it was. Lansdale told him it was the feelings of the common rural Vietnamese people. McNamara then erased it and sarcastically told Lansdale that he could not measure it.

Rufus Phillips had a confrontation with former Ambassador to South Vietnam Frederick Nolting in late September or early October 1963, following the Krulak–Mendenhall mission:

He [Nolting] had been surprised by what I had said at the first meeting at the White House and thought my opinions that we were losing the war unwarranted. I didn’t think I had gone that far. He said, “You just ruined it.” I replied, “No, you ruined it by not getting Lansdale out there when it would have done some good.” We glared at each other for a moment. He had clearly not understood that I wanted to save Diem but also to tell the truth about Vietnamese reality. Afterward I felt a sense of regret. He had tried mightily to do the right thing, yet he had not understood his personal limitations or those imposed by the formality of his position [i.e., the fact that the South Vietnamese for cultural reasons would not tell the truth about their difficulties unless it was done in private informal settings with Americans whom they had developed a personal level of trust]. 

 

[Rufus Phillips, Why Vietnam Matters: An Eyewitness Account of Lessons Not Learned]

According to Daniel Ellsberg, Lansdale was ordered in late September or early October 1963 to McNamara's office. The two went to McNamara's limo and drove to the White House and met with President Kennedy. Kennedy wanted to send him to Vietnam due to his ability to reason with Diệm, but he wanted to know if Lansdale would support removing Diệm from office if it became necessary. Lansdale said no, that Diệm was his friend (Lansdale also believed that replacing Diệm would lead to disaster). Kennedy seemed to understand and didn't show any disappointment, but in the limo McNamara was furious: “You don’t talk to the president of the United States that way. When he asks you to do something, you don’t tell him you won’t do it.” Lansdale was ordered to retire from the Air Force by the end of October. During Lansdale's 31 October 1963 retirement reception Defense Secretary McNamara walked through the room and never looked at Lansdale.

Diệm would be assassinated the next day.