WASHINGTON (AP) - Newly released White House tapes from the
Vietnam War era show President Kennedy wrestling over the fate of
South Vietnam's strongman in a situation similar to the one
President Obama is dealing with today in Afghanistan.

Audio tapes and transcripts of four days of White House meetings
in 1963 have been released this week by the JFK Presidental Library
in Boston. They show uncertainty over what steps to take to try to
bolster a Saigon government that was riddled with corruption and
out of touch with citizns as it battled Communist insurgents.

Forty-six years ago this week, Vietnamese generals overthrew the
government of President Ngo Dinh Diem (goh dihn dee-EHM'), killing
him and his brother.

The State Department had given a green light to the generals'
coup but later Kennedy questioned it. The tapes don't show if
Kennedy tried to stop it. Kennedy library archivist Maura Porter
says the assassinations in Saigon were not discussed in the White
House meetings on the tapes.