751G.551/3–1152: Telegram
The Minister at Saigon (Heath) to the Department of State
1768. Rptd info Paris 625, Hanoi unn. On March 8 Lt. Col Nguyen Van Hinh FAF was made Brig General first Gen Officer new Viet Army, and slated for Chief of Staff. He is son of Min of Interior and Security Tam, and is Lt Col in FAF in which he at one time served with US aviation in North Africa (biographic details being pouched). Hinh is brave, handsome, attractive youth in middle thirties, more forthright and western in manner than most Vietnamese. It is difficult to see in him the moral force, the experience, sense of dedication or the mordant [sic] of a Chief of Staff, especially when one compares him with redoubtable Vo Nguyen Giap,1 his opposite number on Commie side. It is expected he may be able to handle well the dipl aspects of job, as for example, with Americans (he speaks English) and other branches since he is Air Officer. He was most recently Chief of Mil Cabinet of Bao Dai and appears successfully to have companioned Chief of State with aid his dashing, Marseilles-blond wife. He is well disposed toward Americans.
Gen Salan seemed to believe his appointment as Brigadier General was reasonable enough but said he wld take some time to develop as Chief of Staff, but wld of course have advice Fr officer working closely with him.
Hinh’s appointment was at insistence of Bao Dai over Huu’s reservations and also represents triumph of Bao Dai’s theses that ready-or-not Vietnamese officers must be named to Gen Officer positions. It is expected that more Vietnamese Brigadiers will shortly be named to head 3 divisions of Viet Army.
- Minister of National Defense of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.↩