Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, Indochina, Volume XIII, Part 1

751G.5622/4–954

Memorandum by the Counselor (MacArthur) to the Secretary of State¹

top secret

[Washington,] April 9, 1954.

Captain Anderson (Special Assistant to Admiral Radford) asked me to pass on the following information to you regarding Indochina:

1. General Ely sent a Special Representative to General Navarre and this Special Representative is now in Washington en route to Paris.² He has informed Admiral Radford that the French intend to make more use of Col. Rosson.³ (Col. Rosson is one of our ablest young planners and was with General Eisenhower and General Ridgway and General Gruenther at SHAPE. He was attending the Army War College and was sent from there to Indochina a few weeks ago.)

2. General Navarre is now apparently prepared to make use of 25 to 50 U.S. Army Officer instructors in connection with the training program for raising native forces. There is still extreme sensitivity on the part of General Navarre and the French to this type of activity and it was not clear to me in exactly what capacity these instructors would operate other than that they would be used to assist in raising and training native forces.

3. General Ely, upon returning to Paris, apparently gave the impression that he had been misled in Washington; and this may have resulted in the French request for Naval air intervention. Captain Anderson thinks that General Ely actually was not misled throughout any conversations that he had here, particularly in the light of the talk he had with the Secretary and Admiral Radford.

4. General Trapnell has reported that the French are really not in a good position to make use of additional aircraft which the U.S. might furnish unless they increase the numbers of their pilot-maintenance air personnel in Indochina. This personnel must come from France. At the present time, the French are not able to make full and effective use of the aircraft which they have in Indochina.

5. With respect to the French request for B–29’s, it seems apparent from the conversations which Admiral Radford’s people in the Pentagon have had with General Ely’s representative, that the request was “political” and not based on a sound French military judgment. I gathered that Mr. Pleven originated this request, and that it was not properly screened through the French military. The French military themselves do not believe that B–29’s are the proper type of aircraft; and, furthermore, it would take a very considerable time to train French personnel to use B–29’s effectively. Similarly, there has recently been an urgent request from the French for larger bombs for use in Indochina. This request also, I undertand, was Mr. Pleven’s idea and had not been screened or recommended by the French military. It seems obvious from the foregoing pattern that some of the rather unrealistic requests which we have been receiving for military equipment, etc., have their origin with the civilian Ministers in the French Defense Establishment, rather than from the French military itself.

I said that I would pass this information on to the Secretary and that it was much appreciated, since he would be seeing the French in Paris next week, and this kind of background would be very helpful in the event some of these matters came up. I assured Captain Anderson that we would protect the source and would not make reference to the fact that Ely’s representative had talked with us so frankly. I also said that if Captain Anderson could give me a little memorandum on this, it would be much appreciated; but this was not essential, since I thought I had from him the main points which would be useful to the Secretary.

Douglas MacArthur II

1. This memorandum was transmitted to the Secretary through the Executive Secretariat. The source text bears the following handwritten note from MacArthur to Roderic O’Connor, Special Assistant to Secretary Dulles: “Rod—The Secretary might glance at this before he sees Admiral Radford at 11:30 a.m. tomorrow.” The Secretary’s appointment book indicates that Dulles met with Radford and MacArthur, with Under Secretary Smith in attendance part of the time, at 11:40 a.m., Apr. 10. (Princeton University, Dulles papers, “Daily Appointments”) No record of the meeting has been found.
2. For a memorandum of Apr. 10 from Admiral Radford to Secretary Dulles regarding conversations with Colonel Brohon, the French representative, see p. 1303.
3. Lt. Col. William B. Rosson, USA.