751G.5/3–1252: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Gifford) to the Department of State
priority
3988. Rptd info Paris 1898, Saigon 18. Foreign Office has prepared telegram to Washington which, subject top-level clearance, will instruct British Embassy inform Department its desire review Indochina situation soonest. Telegram will mention series of ambiguous public statements by French officials regarding future French relations [Page 67] with Indochina, will mention persistent rumors French are conducting informal and tentative negotiations Ho Chi-Minh, and will refer pessimistically to likely short life of new French Government1 which, if it falls in matter of weeks, will likely be replaced with leftist government committed to a détente in Indochina and possibly with Mendes-France2 in position of authority.
Telegram will urge necessity for consideration of US–UK position in event French do decide cut their losses in Indochina. This problem, Foreign Office points out, has somewhat different slant from tripartite discussions recently concluded in Washington which understood to be concerned mainly with what might be done in event open Chinese aggression against Indochina. Present problem is what is to be done if French, faced with financial crisis, decide it has no recourse but to pull out as rapidly as circumstances permit, leaving Southeast Asia relatively defenseless.
- The government of Edgar Faure fell on Feb. 29 over a tax issue. A new government was formed by Antoine Pinay on Mar. 8. Robert Schuman and Jean Letourneau retained their positions as Foreign Minister and Minister for the Associated States, respectively.↩
- Pierre Mendès-France, a leader of the Radical Socialist Party; advocate of a negotiated withdrawal from Indochina.↩