751G.5/10–2852: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Embassy at Saigon1
888. For Ambassador. US press has carried wide coverage Nghia-Lo battle and subsequent developments Tonkin campaign. Dept under constant pressure from official agencies to interpret meaning, importance and probable outcome campaign.
Presume additional mil info expected from att as result direct inquiries by Army will satisfy some or all above requirements.
Although Nghia-Lo area does not appear to have immed strategic importance; forces engaged, including Fr paratroop reserves are important, if current reports are correct.
What we shld like to have from Salan or Letourneau is estimate of effect of current engagement on projected offensive operations for which we have supplied transport aircraft. We need not have Fr operational plans in detail but wld like know if projected assumption [Page 272] initiative has been endangered, deferred, diverted or abandoned since Nghia-Lo.
To what extent did recent typhoons damage aircraft on ground or affect readiness.
- Drafted by Robert E. Hoey and Edmund A. Gullion of PSA.↩