PSA files, lot 58 D 207, “Vietnam Correspondence”
The Director of the Office of Philippine and Southeast Asian Affairs (Bonsal) to the Ambassador at Saigon (Heath)
Dear Don: Before this reaches you you will have received a telegram from us regarding Turner Cameron’s plans and you will have been able to fix an approximate date for Turner’s taking over in Hanoi.1 I am favorably impressed with Turner and believe he will do a very good job.
I hope in this connection that before Paul Sturm departs he will have the benefit of a long talk with you regarding the situation which confronts us over the next few weeks and will be able to handle his “debriefing” in Washington and elsewhere accordingly. I hasten to say that I would not hope or wish to induce Paul to be less than objective in his description of conditions in the area where he has served so brilliantly for the past two years. But I would wish him not to yield to the temptation of the fat boy in The Pickwick Papers when he aimed to make peoples flesh creep.
The major asset of our side in the coming weeks and particularly at the Geneva Conference is a conviction that with the Navarre plan the French Union has the capacity and the will to make decisive military progress during the next fighting season. Conversely, anything which is done to shake that conviction will help those who for different reasons desire or are convinced of the eventual failure of the Indochina enterprise. You and I know how precarious is the balance between the two views in Paris and elsewhere.
In other words, I look forward to seeing Paul return here after having received a liberal injection of your own robust faith in the future and warned against the harm which could be done through the undue highlighting of the more sensational and pessimistic aspects which undoubtedly form a part but only a part of the total picture with which we are confronted.
With warm regards,
Yours as always,
- Cameron replaced Sturm as Consul at Hanoi on Mar. 18.↩