Secretary’s Memoranda of Conversation, lot 64 D 199
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Secretary of State1
I discussed with Foreign Minister Bidault on Saturday April 25 and with Prime Minister Mayer on Sunday April 26, the question of raising in the Security Council the question of the Communist aggression [Page 513] from Viet Nam against Laos.2 Both indicated a reluctance to take this step, a reluctance born out of fear that this might precipitate a colonial debate.
I expressed the view that the danger of this in the Security Council might not be as great as in the General Assembly and that it would probably be possible to find out in advance what the result would be in the Security Council, recognizing that Soviet Russia would, presumably, interpose a veto.
I pointed out that it was difficult to treat this Indochinese war as an international matter, perhaps to be discussed between the Soviet Union and the Western Powers, if the French and the Associated States themselves treated it as a purely civil war matter.
I said I had not come to any definitive conclusion but that I felt the matter should be explored.
Both Mayer and Bidault agreed to such exploration and to further exchange of views through diplomatic channels.
- Copies of this memorandum were transmitted to James C. H. Bonbright, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs; Walter S. Robertson, Assistant Secretary for Far Eastern Affairs; and John D. Hickerson, Assistant Secretary for United Nations Affairs.↩
- The question of Laos was discussed during the course of the U.S.-U.K.-France meeting at Paris on Apr. 25; for extracts from the U.S. minutes of that meeting, see p. 505. The discussion on Laos between Secretary Dulles and Premier Mayer of Apr. 26 is described in telegram 5675 from Paris, supra.↩