Editorial Note
According to the President’s appointment book, President Eisenhower and Vice President Nixon met with Republican Congressional leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Knowland and Speaker of the House Martin, at 8:30 a.m., March 29, 1954. (Eisenhower Library, Eisenhower records, “Daily Appointments”) The record of this meeting prepared by L. Arthur Minnich, Jr., Assistant Staff Secretary to the President, provides no indication that Indochina was discussed. (Eisenhower Library, Whitman file) However, Richard Nixon, in an apparent reference to this session, recalled the following: “At a congressional leadership meeting at the end of March, Eisenhower said that if the military situation at Dien Bien Phu became desperate he would consider the use of diversionary tactics, possibly a landing by Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist forces on China’s Hainan Island or a naval blockade of the Chinese mainland. Very simply, but dramatically, he said, ‘I am bringing this up at this time because at any time within the space of forty-eight hours, it might be necessary to move into the battle of Dien Bien Phu in order to keep it from going against us, and in that case I will be calling in the Democrats as well as our Republican leaders to inform them of the actions we’re taking.’” (Richard Nixon, R.N.: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon (New York, Grosset & Dunlap, 1978), page 151)