790.5/12–2251
Memorandum by the Secretary of State to the President
Memorandum for the President
Subject: French and British Request for United States Participation in Tripartite Military Conversations Concerning the Defense of Southeast Asia
Prime Minister Pleven of France has asked me to bring to your personal attention the attached note from him.1 This note concerns the serious possibility of Chinese Communist intervention in Indochina.
Mr. Pleven strongly urges that conversations on the defense of Southeast Asia be started immediately by representatives of the United States, United Kingdom and France. The 1951 Singapore Conference recommended that such conversations be held.
I have been informed that the Joint Chiefs of Staff yesterday agreed to United States participation in such conversations. A telegram is accordingly being despatched to Ambassador Bruce in Paris instructing him to inform the French Prime Minister of the concurrence of [Page 580] the Department of Defense and their suggestion that the conversations be held as soon as possible, preferably in Washington.2
- See telegram 3765 from Paris, December 22, p. 571.↩
- Instructions for Ambassador Bruce were transmitted in telegram 3732, December 29, not printed (790.5/12–2251). The invitations issued by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the French and British Chiefs of Staff on December 28 are outlined in telegram 3743 to Paris, December 29, p. 130.↩