PERSONS/ENTITIES: Richardson, John Diem DATES: 16 Sept 1963 CATEGORIES: DIEM OCCURRENCE: In a CIA cable from Saigon (SAIG00292) of 16 September 1963 Richardson replied to Washington's request for his judgment on the desirability and feasibility of certain ideas, as Washington was then in the course of constructing an agreed plan. He cabled: "We must go on trying to win the war with current administration for as long as it persists in power (we should not attempt publicly to achieve objectives with respect to GVN with probability of attainment is virtually nil) we cannot covertly tinker with or engineer coup unless general situation is reasonably propitious and if we are unable to establish necessary working contact with Vietnamese leaders willing and able to do the job with necessary means. (Agree we should carefully explore and perhaps carefully experiment with graduated measures designed to pressure Diem, within context of persuading him to take steps needed. These measures would be more effective if they are limited to practical and achievable objectives.)" SOURCE: IG Report 1967 (CIA) p. 24 STAFF: Dawson FILE: DATE: PERSONS/ENTITIES: Smith, David R. CIA Acting Chief after 5 Oct 1963 Richardson, John Lodge Dunn, Mike DATES: Sept 17, 1963 CATEGORIES: DIEM OCCURRENCE: In a memorandum for the record prepared by Helms on September 17, 1963, he reported "Smith (discussed with me) reports that Lodge wanted to get rid of Mr. John Richardson (Mike Dunn) had told Conein that Lodge was 'to get rid of Richardson'. (On one occasion Dunn asked Conein, 'do you think that Dave Smith can run the stations for a temporary period while a new station chief is being sent out here?'" SOURCE: IG Report 1967 (CIA) p. 24 STAFF: Dawson FILE: DATE: 6/27/75