751G.00/7–2154: Telegram
The Consul at Hanoi (Cameron) to the Department of State
77. Repeated information Saigon 97, Paris 27. Hoang-Co-Binh and Tran-Van-Dung came to Consulate this afternoon to return my call. Dung and General Van are leaving for Saigon tonight to obtain from Prime Minister Diem instructions in light cease-fire agreements.
Although they did not know terms of agreement, both Binh and Dung were in better spirits than I have ever seen them. They seemed particularly pleased over press reports from Geneva that France and Viet Minh would be only signatories. They took this to mean that Vietnamese Government would not recognize agreement and that US would furnish assistance, arms, etc. directly to their government. They also seemed to accept report that French would have ten months leave Tonkin and implied that with US assistance this would give them time to prepare effective resistance againt Viet Minh. Existing Vietnamese units would form basis for this resistance effort which, according them, could be started at once since French operational control over Vietnamese units would end when cease-fire became effective.
[Page 1863]I confined my comments to a repetition of statement that we, like everyone else, were waiting to hear what terms of cease-fire agreement were.