751G.00/10–2554
Memorandum by the Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs (Robertson) to the Secretary of State1
Subject:
- French Proposal to Set Up “Viceroy” in Saigon
Paris telegram 17172 reports your conversation of October 23 with Mendes-France on the Diem government. Mendes said the French were studying a plan to send someone to Saigon to act as “a sort of viceroy” for Bao Dai. This individual, according to Mendes, would neither support nor act against Diem, but “would preside over a presidium which [Page 2183] would take its own decisions”. While Mendes did not mention any names, the Embassy has no doubt that the French are thinking of Buu Loc or Buu Hoi. La Chambre pressed for Buu Loc during the Washington talks in September.
We are concerned to know what type of “decisions” this presidium would take. If it did not actively intervene in the government, it could only observe and make recommendations to Diem, Bao Dai, the French and/or the U.S. Although Mendes said this “viceroy” would have no authority to interfere in government, we can see no way which he could play any part in Saigon, useful or otherwise, unless he did interfere.
With regard to the personalities who may be involved, Buu Loc and Buu Hoi, we have serious reservations. Buu Loc already has a record of failure as Prime Minister of Viet-Nam. While not a French citizen, he has spent most of his adult life in France. He has neither political appeal nor adroitness, and is said to have made a very good thing financially of his post as Vietnamese High Commissioner in Paris. At the time he became Prime Minister, it was generally agreed that his two assets for the job were that he was politically neuter and that it would be understood he was functioning as a stand-in for Bao Dai.
Buu Hoi has never held office. He is one of Bao Dai’s innumerable cousins, of the same generation as Buu Loc. He has some scientific pretensions and has been associated in France with Joliot-Curie.3 He is said also to have served as a go-between for Bao Dai with the Viet-Minh. If he played any part in Vietnamese politics, his efforts would probably be directed to seeking a modus vivendi with the Viet Minh.
Our feeling is that at the present time a “viceroy” in Saigon would only complicate matters in the sense of further weakening Diem’s authority, unless he did nothing at all, in which case his being there would be pointless. We think we should hew fast to the present policy of supporting Diem and try to form a government of national union around him. We should discourage any effort to confuse that issue or further attenuate such authority as he has.