ments to Westmoreland and to send the Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Wheeler to meet with Westmoreland in order to determine how many more reserves would be needed. Wheeler told Johnson that the Americans needed 205,000 more troops in order to get rid of the communist. Johnson decided to send Clark Clifford and a Task Force to assess the military , political, and budget implications of Westmoreland's request. The task force concluded that more troops in the war would not win it for the United States. The only thing that the United States could get out of the war was maybe a stalemate and the United States economy could not sustain this. After the memorandum that Clifford gave Johnson, the decision was made to send only 22,000 troop to, Vietnam because that was all the United States could send at the time. Rusk decided that the United States had to try to get the communist to join in a peace initiative, so Rusk started drafting up a solution for peace. Rusk's proposal led Johnson into a decision to cease the bombing and to enter negotiations. United Nations, Arthur Goldberg proposed that Johnson cease bombing altogether in the North without trying to get any peace talks. Johnson was totally against this proposal. Johnson decided that he was going to replace General Westmoreland. Johnson soon called up the Wise Men to get their assessment of the war and what should be done. The decision of the Wise Men was different than expected, they felt that the United States needed to disengage from the war. Johnson was not happy about this decision and did not want to listen to it. On March 31 Johnson ordered a temporary halt of the bombings in Vietnam and decided that he would not run for President again. Johnson concluded that he would send representatives to Geneva and Rangoon to meet with the North Vietnamese to talk of peace. If the North required more than that, Johnson would stop the bombing completely. The North responde...
