110.11 DU/4–454: Telegram
Smith–Eden–Bidault–Dinh Meeting, Geneva, May 3, Morning: The Under Secretary of State (Smith) to the Department of State
Dulte 49. Repeated information Saigon 24, Paris 181. Upon Vietnamese request, Eden, Bidault and I met with Vietnam Foreign Minister Dinh morning May 3 in Bidault’s office.
Dinh expressed Bao Dai’s thanks for the invitation to the conference. He said Bao Dai had naturally hesitated before accepting the invitation because it involved meeting with the Viet Minh and the Communist powers. He remarked it would be necessary for him to have frequent meetings with the three of us. We replied individually that we would keep in touch with him and would undertake no important action without prior consultation with him.
Bidault said that we had a moral interest, particularly in view of the plight of the wounded at Dien–Bien–Phu, in getting the Indochina phase of the conference promptly under way and not let it bog down in procedural and organizational differences. He observed there had been agreement in Berlin that Russia would invite the Chinese and the Viet Minh while Foreign Ministers of the free countries would invite the Associated States. He suggested that the oral invitation extended at this meeting should be sufficient but Dinh replied that Bao Dai preferred written invitation. We agreed.
[Page 670]Dinh went on to say that his government could not justify before the people Vietnamese participation in the conference unless he were given full support against any proposal directed against the territorial integrity and political unity of Vietnam. Secondly, he made it clear that the presence of the Viet Minh should not be taken as implying recognition of the latter as constituting a state. The Viet Minh were mere insurgents. Thirdly, his government was in favor of some action being taken at the earliest moment of the conference to permit the evacuation of the wounded in Dien–Bien–Phu. Bidault and I reassured him that acceptance of the presence of Viet Minh did not constitute recognition of them. I reminded him that we did not recognize Communist China. The Viet Minh, however, constituted a fact of this war and we could not ignore this fact by refusing to confer with them in this conference. Bidault said he had tried to exclude the Viet Minh but had had to retreat from this position in the face of violent Russian intransigence. In view of the Soviet attitude it would not have been possible to have staged the conference had we insisted on barring Viet Minh attendance.
We disclosed the problem of the chairmanship of the conference and agreed that in the meeting with the Russians this afternoon the French would endeavor to get definite agreement that the chairmanship would rotate between UK, USSR and Thailand. The sharing the chairmanship would not constitute participation by Thailand in the conference. On his two days off the Thai Minister would be merely an observer. Chauvel said that in his meeting with Gromyko yesterday, the latter had concurred that the Thai Minister might be the third chairman. We agreed that if the Russians did not confirm this arrangement it would be necessary to find an outsider as a third chairman, which would be a matter of some difficulty.