751G.00/5–1554: Telegram
The Chargé at Saigon (McClintock) to the Department of State
2414. Repeated information Paris 853, Geneva 117. I had a talk today with General Navarre. He said that intelligence thus far has not revealed any move by Viet Minh in direction of Luang Prabang, although he did not exclude possibility of a thrust in that direction. He thought General Giap would bring his forces from Dien Bien Phu to attack delta. This impression was strengthened by Viet Minh maneuver to barter welfare of wounded at Dien Bien Phu against immunity from aerial bombardment on RC–41.
Navarre said he expected General Ely to come out to Saigon within next few days. He repeated his by now familiar theme on need to internationalize war and questioned me closely as to attitude of Congress, effect of elections in November, and when next new Congress would convene. I took occasion to point out that possibly Congressional opinion might be affected by fact that in Korean war United States troops were draftees, but thus far no one had observed movement on part of French Parliament to permit conscripts to serve in this theatre. I added Secretary Dulles was the Allied Statesman who was doing the most at present to try to work out united policy for action. Navarre said that if in fact any concrete intervention were contemplated, our capacity and will so to intervene should be made unmistakably clear to enemy.
Navarre’s mood is very bitter and he is seeking, as I have predicted, to find pretext to thrust blame on Americans for what happens in Indochina. Admiral Auboyneau, Chief of French Naval Force Far East, whom I met later today, was also most exercised at article in current issue Time magazine indicating United States had mistakenly assumed France was a great power. I told Auboyneau that I would paraphrase Voltaire: “If France did not exist, God would have to create her.”