751G.00/12–554: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Legation in Laos1
132. Vientiane 158 repeated Saigon 227, Phnom Penh unnumbered.2 Department concurs completely views expressed by you third paragraph reference telegram concerning reconsideration U.S. aid should Pathet Lao be permitted participate government.
After showing Vientiane telegram 163 to Lao Minister Washington,3 opportunity taken reaffirm your views as noted above and solicit [Page 2346] his assistance. He showed copy telegram he had sent twenty fourth November after talk with Dept officer in which he reported U.S. opinion as excluding support and aid to a coalition government including Pathet Lao.
In response his inquiry as to how he could help, suggestion made he communicate directly if possible to Crown Prince his own warning that first, no coexistence with Communists could end in anything but Communist victory, secondly people who assessed Pathet Lao as nationalist first and Communist second were simply naive and finally he again viewed U.S. policy as excluding aid to a Communist coalition government.
Lao Minister went on to express his low personal opinion of Katay. Latter achieved high position pre-war French civil service by accommodating self to French interests. Later did same with Japanese and Chinese. To make it worse, he is son of Vietnamese father. Although not necessarily pro-Communist he is impelled by opportunistic motives in dealing with Pathet Lao.
Minister thought combination Crown Prince, Phoui and U.S. views would ensure no soft policy adopted.
- Drafted by Hoey of PSA. Repeated for information to Saigon as 2283; pouched to Paris and Phnom Penh.↩
- Dated Dec. 3, p. 2336.↩
- Telegram 163 from Vientiane, Dec. 5, containing the text of an ICC declaration regarding the situation in the two Pathet Lao controlled provinces of Laos, is not printed. (751G.00/12–55) Hoey’s memorandum of his conversation of Dec. 6 with Ourot Souvannavong, the Minister of Laos, is also in file 751G.00/12–554.↩