129. Editorial Note
In telegram 1107 from Saigon, December 4, Ambassador Lodge sent Harriman his opinion of the proposed conference on Cambodia and its impact on Vietnam and the conduct of the war there. He predicted the conference would be “disastrous” to the war effort because it would encourage neutralism in South Vietnam, open up other Southeast Asian questions such as the unification of Vietnam, and give the French (who would certainly be participants in the conference) an opportunity to “hamper all of our major policy objectives here.” Regarding Cambodia specifically, he noted: “An agreement to protect South Viet-Nam’s neutralists from infiltration from Cambodia which was actually enforced by an efficacious border patrol would have merit, but I have seen no serious suggestion that there is even a possibility of this. If there were a possibility of it, a conference would probably not be necessary to bring it about.” (Department of State, Central Files, POL 27–13 CAMB)
The full text of telegram 1107 is printed in volume I, pages 661–663.