751G.00/6–2054: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Dillon) to the Department of State
priority
4944. Repeated information London 1193, Geneva 428. The Under Secretary met for an hour and a quarter with Mendes-France this afternoon at the Quai d’Orsay.1 At Mendes’ request, only Under Secretary and Dillon were present for the first 15 minutes. Thereafter, Robertson, Parodi, Chauvel, Ely and La Chambre (new Minister for Associated States) joined the meeting. Subject matter at both meetings was identical and is reported herewith as one meeting. Mendes opened by reminding General Smith of his conversation with him in Washington last September where he had pointed out the great importance to France of settling the war in Indochina. Since then the situation had considerably deteriorated with the result that it was now essential to make every effort to end the war promptly. This Mendes hoped, would give the necessary impetus to a revivification of the spirit of France. If he was successful in achieving peace in Indochina, Mendes hoped that he could overcome the deep differences that divided the French people and put France back on the track as a great power. However, Mendes said several times that he would not in any event accept a peace in Indochina that was a surrender to the Viet Minh and that he would not even accept a disguised capitulation. The settlement to be reached would have to be a fair one, he said.
Mendes then said that he had just been informed this morning that Chou En-lai wished him to come to Geneva for a meeting. Mendes said that in view of the fact that Eden and the Under Secretary had left Geneva, he would in no event go there himself at this time. However, he did not feel that he could turn down Chou En-lai’s invitation flatly, and so he said he was considering making a counterproposal that Chou En-lai visit him in Paris. The Under Secretary said that he felt that such a visit would have very bad repercussions in certain quarters of American opinion who would take it to mean de facto recognition of Communist China by France. Mendes then said that Eden had heartily welcomed the idea and had asked him to tell the Under Secretary that Eden was in favor of such a visit. After further discussion in which the possibility of the French Communists making use of such a visit for propaganda purposes was mentioned, which Mendes said would be most undesirable, the idea was broached of having the meeting in a small town somewhere in eastern France part way between Paris and Geneva. The subject was dropped with Mendes saying he felt it would be definitely better to have the meeting somewhere outside of Paris.
[Page 1726]The Under Secretary then described to Mendes in some detail his conversation of Friday night with Molotov2 and he emphasized that he had told Molotov that the United States would take a very grave view of any attempt by the Communist side to obtain more than they were entitled to and, in particular, to in any way humiliate our ally France whom we continued to fully support.
The Under Secretary then went on to mention the importance of the Thailand appeal to the United Nations. Mendes had only heard of the appeal in very general terms and clearly did not know what a peace observation committee was or anything about the substance of this problem. Chauvel said that he understood that the United States wished the General Assembly to take the matter up on the 15th of July, but that Eden had said the United Kingdom preferred the 20th of July, in view of Mendes-France’s deadline for peace in Indochina. Under Secretary observed that he did not see why this deadline should have any effect on Thailand and Chauvel agreed and said that he was only reporting the British position.
The Under Secretary then emphasized the importance of the French delegation in Geneva keeping in touch with our delegation regarding any negotiations with the Viet Minh so that we would not be suddenly faced with a solution from which we would have to publicly disassociate ourselves. The Under Secretary said that if such a solution was going to be reached eventually, it would be better for us to know it soon so that we could disassociate ourselves from the negotiations gradually and cushion what might otherwise be a serious shock to Franco–American relations. Mendes thanked the Under Secretary very much for this statement and said that he was glad to know the United States position. He stated that the French delegation in Geneva would be instructed to keep in close touch with the United States delegation.
Mendes apeared to have already acquired a good grasp of the negotiations at Geneva and at one point he surprised Chauvel by his knowledge of the secret negotiations with the Viet Minh which Chauvel had obviously not fully reported to him. Mendes had obtained his information directly from Colonel Brebisson.
Mendes made only one request. He said that if and when any agreement was reached with the Viet Minh, he expected to have considerable difficulty with the new Vietnamese Government. He said that Diem was a fanatic much like Syngman Rhee and that while it would have been most helpful to have had him in power two or three years ago, it would be most unfortunate if he seriously obstructed the negotiations at the present time. He said that the Vietnam representatives would [Page 1727] undoubtedly place great weight on any advice they might get from the United States and he hoped that the United States would be able to help France by discreetly letting the Vietnamese representatives know that they would be wise to accept the French agreement with the Viet Minh as the best agreement obtainable. Mendes emphasized this subject several times and this was clearly the one important request he had to make. The Under Secretary did not commit himself in any way on this subject.
Finally, Mendes said that he hoped that if an agreement was reached by the technical committees in the near future, the Ministers would be willing to return to Geneva before July 12. He said that Eden had indicated willingness to return earlier provided a satisfactory arrangement was reached. The Under Secretary responded that we considered the July 12th date to be an outside date and we very much hoped that the technical committees would reach an agreement prior to that date. This completed the Indochina phase of the discussions.
- Under Secretary Smith left Geneva on June 20, stopping at Paris before returning to Washington.↩
- The conversation under reference of June 18 was summarized in telegram Dulte 202 from Geneva, June 19; for text, see vol. xvi, p. 1189.↩