751G.00/4–2252: Despatch
The Minister at Saigon (Heath) to the Department of State
No. 517
Subject:
- Tendentious Reference to United States in French Intelligence Report
There is enclosed an excerpt from a letter, dated April 10, 1952,1 addressed to me by W. Wendell Blancke, American Consul at Hanoi, relating an incident which occurred on April 8 during the course of a call paid on General De Linares, Commander of French Union Forces in North Vietnam, for the purpose of introducing Consul Blancke’s successor, Consul Paul Sturm. General De Linares availed himself of the occasion to read to Messrs. Blancke and Sturm an excerpt from his daily intelligence report. This item asserted that Vietnamese in Hanoi and in the region of Phat Diem were alleging that, according to information emanating from American consular authorities, the situation of the French troops in North Vietnam is deteriorating in view of the shortage of military aid and that it is, therefore, possible that French forces would have to be relieved by Vietnamese troops, whereupon American military aid would be again forthcoming. According to Blancke, De Linares treated this report as a joke but with just enough seriousness to indicate that there had better not be any truth in it. Blancke denied that there was any foundation in fact in the reported Vietnamese allegations and reminded General De Linares of the malicious gossip which has been current from time to time.
The incident would appear to the Legation to be of slight importance [Page 110] in itself but is being reported as an indication of the French sensitivity with respect to American activities in the Associated States. Such incidents are likely to reoccur because of the tendency of the French intelligence services to seize on rumors of American desires to advance Vietnamese national aspirations at the expense of France or allegations of American plots to displace the French in Indochina.
It is our opinion that these occasional incidents should not be given undue emphasis or be permitted to create the impression that suspicion of our motives is general among French officials. In the event of French allegations which have no basis in fact, we should firmly but courteously set the record straight. It is to our mutual interest, however, to minimize such sources of friction and to recognize that most such allegations arise from rumor mongering.
- Not printed.↩