851G.00/2–647: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Caffery) to the Secretary of State 49
524. This morning I put squarely before Bidault the matters set out in Department’s 431, February 3. He said that he was appreciative of our interest and grateful for our friendly expressions but that he wanted to make the most express reservations from a juridical point of view in regard to a country in direct interest bringing the matter before the Security Council under Chapter II of the Charter observing that if that were done for Indochina some other country might do it also for Algeria or even Corsica.
The French Government he said is perfectly aware that the day of colonial empires in the Nineteenth Century sense of the word is a thing of the past. He added that the French Government has kept the door open to some sort of settlement; that the French Government would without question be generous and conciliatory in trying to find [Page 70] a solution: in fact, Admiral Thierry D’Argenlieu’s secret recommendation that the French Government make a public statement that it would not deal with Ho Chi Minh’s Government has been categorically rejected and the Admiral’s resignation is being accepted. He is to be replaced by General Leclerc who Bidault remarked dislikes D’Argenlieu and will adopt a policy as far removed from D’Argenlieu’s as possible. “However” he said “please keep this extremely confidential because if de Gaulle50 finds out that Leclerc is going out there he will get hold of him, poison his mind and upset our apple cart”.
“You may assure your Government that we are more than anxious to find a peaceable liberal solution in Indochina and to find it as soon as possible.”51
- Repeated in telegram 643, February 7, 7 p.m., to London.↩
- Gen. Charles de Gaulle, President of the French Provisional Government, November 1945–January 26, 1946.↩
- A summary of the exchange with Foreign Minister Bidault was sent in telegram 30, February 7, 6 p.m., to Saigon, and repeated as No. 13 to Hanoi and No. 153 to Nanking.↩