Editorial Note
Vice President Richard M. Nixon left Washington on October 7 for a visit to a number of countries in the Middle and Far East. He returned to the United States on December 14. For his televised address to the Nation, “Meeting the People of Asia”, delivered December 23, see Department of State Bulletin, January 4, 1954, page 10.
Vice President Nixon gave a general report on his trip to the members of the National Security Council at the 177th Meeting, December 23, 1953. (Eisenhower Library, Eisenhower papers, Whitman file) In addition, he addressed certain officers of the Department [Page 353] on January 8, 1954. (“Vice President Nixon’s Report to Department Officers on His Trip to the Near and Far East”; PPS files, lot 64 D 563, “Asia 1952–53”) For an extract concerning Indochina from the latter report, see volume XIII, Part 1, page 929. Considerations of space prevent its being printed in full.
Further documentation concerning the Vice President’s trip is printed in volume XV and in volume XI, Part 2, pages 1365 ff. and 1818 ff.