751G.00/4–1654: Telegram
The Ambassador at Saigon (Heath) to the Department of State
2022. Repeated information Paris 665, Hanoi 373. I took General O’Daniel to call on Buu Loc yesterday.
Buu Loc said that Vietnamese Government was not opposed in principle to proposed conference in Geneva or to any discussion of peaceful solution to present war but it was adamant that there must be no cession or division of Vietnamese territory and it could not accept [Page 1342] any solution of “mixed government” wherein, say, Viet Minh would have portfolios of interior, education, and defense; that would be followed very quickly by Communist absorption of Vietnam as it was classic Communist trick, the way they had taken Czechoslovakia. In any case, however, Vietnamese Government could not consider participating in Geneva conference until their negotiations with France, which had already dragged on abnormally, were completed with independence of Vietnam clearly established and association with France and French Union equally clearly established. Those negotiations should and could be brought to satisfactory conclusion before conference at Geneva ended. His personal attitude remained the same. He would not continue to preside a government which would send a delegation to conference wherein Viet Minh would be seated on terms of equality with Vietnamese delegation thereby giving former de facto recognition.
In conclusion he said he regretted O’Daniel arrived at time when Vietnamese Government for moment could not carry on its plans for more aggressive conduct of war because majority of cabinet members were held in Paris by important but interminable discussions with French. War cabinet could not get going because both Ninh [Hinh] and Defense Minister Quat were now in Paris. He expected both of them, however, to return next week.