Phillips believed it was still possible to split the Nhus from President Diem.
Near the end of the meeting, the President comments that there will be a meeting on Vietnam the following day.
“When someone says that this is a military war, and that this is a military judgment. I don’t believe you can say this about this war. This is essentially a political war…for men’s minds. And if we lose the minds of these people, we lose the minds of the officer corps and the civil servants, we will have lost the war even though the appearances may look otherwise for some time to come.”