Conclusion!
From the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential library and thanks to same as extracted a discussion of the decision to bomb North Vietnam in the aftermath of the Camp Holloway/Pleiku attack. The presence of Soviet President Kosygin in Hanoi at the time duly noted AND TAKEN INTO CONSIDERATION BY AMERICAN AUTHORITIES..
"Rusk - - Interview II, Tape 1 -- 2."
Page 25 Date September 26, 1969. Dean Rusk [R] and Paige E. Mulhollan [M].
M: "Was there important opposition within the government at high level to the bombing at the time it was undertaken?"
R: "No. As a matter of fact, George Ball recommended it as Acting Secretary. You see, I was away at the time, and he would have been one who later might have been expected to oppose it, but he made the recommendation."
M: "And the fact that Mr. Kosygin was in Hanoi and not considered important enough to delay it when the Pleiku attack occurred?"
R: "At that time the bombing had nothing to do with Hanoi. It was on the southern part of North Viet Nam. It was on the infiltration routes and just across the DMZ. Initially it started out as simply pinpoint attacks on a limited number of targets and did not start out as a systematic bombing of North Viet Nam. I think there were those who - - there were some - - who felt that it might be better to wait until Mr. Kosygin got out of town, but the Pleiku attack [Camp Holloway] was delivered while Kosygin was in town. So you've got to have sort of sort of sense of balance and reciprocity on these things. If the North Vietnamese laid on a a particular attack in Mr. Kosygin's presence, we didn't see any reason why we couldn't lay on a responsive attack while he was still there. But there was never any question about his personal safety because the bombing didn't go up there at all." [bombing confined to that area of the Demilitarized Zone [DMZ] that boundary between South and North Vietnam and far from Hanoi!]
SOME THOUGHT "IT MIGHT BE BETTER TO WAIT UNTIL KOSYGIN GOT OUT OF TOWN", BUT THAT WAS EVIDENTLY A MINOR CONSIDERATION.
Absolutely amazing with a few strokes of the keyboard and a little Internet savvy what sort of material you can come up and how fast. In this instance straight from the horses mouth too.
coolbert.