396.1 GE/6–1754: Telegram
Fourteenth Restricted Session on Indochina, Geneva, June 16, 3 p.m.: The United States Delegation to the Department of State
Dulte 190. Repeated information Paris 450. Paris limit distribution. Yesterday at recess Molotov asked me what I thought of the Chinese proposals on Laos and Cambodia. I said they seemed reasonable but they did not provide for withdrawal of Viet Minh troops. If this were provided for, and satisfactory control commission agreed upon, they would deserve careful consideration. Molotov said he would propose adding a fifth state, possibly Indonesia, to his original slate of India, Pakistan, Poland and Czechoslovakia, with India as chairman. I said Indonesia was new country and still a little unstable.
I would suggest Philippines or Thailand, both democratic countries. Molotov said they were “a little too democratic”, but that Burma might be considered. I said that Burma had long frontier with her powerful neighbor, China, and would be very sensitive to pressure. Molotov said that on more restricted basis it might be possible to consider India as chairman, with either Poland or Czechoslovakia and “an Asian state” making third. This he did in fact propose at end of session.
I said that I would not speak against the Chinese proposals at this time and that if China’s principal preoccupation, as I had heard, was that United States not establish military bases in Laos or Cambodia, there should be no concern about that, as the United States had no desire or intention to do so as long as these two states were adequately equipped to defend themselves and their security guaranteed.
This conversation should be considered with that of Eden and Chou En-lai reported in my following Secto 463.1