396.1 GE/4–2854
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Special Adviser to the United States Delegation (Merchant)
Participants:
- France
- Mr. Bidault
- Mr. Chauvel
- Mr. Roux
- UK
- Mr. Eden
- Sir Harold Caccia
- US
- Secretary Dulles
- Mr. Robertson
- Mr. Merchant
Time: 10:15 a.m., April 28, 1954
Place: Bidault’s Residence, Joli Port, at Versoix
The meeting was called at Mr. Bidault’s request in advance of his eleven o’clock engagement with Molotov. Mr. Bidault opened by saying that he had received no instructions from Paris nor any word of the official attitude of the Vietnamese Government on the question of participation in the Indochina conference.
Mr. Bidault said that he was increasingly concerned over the effect in Vietnam of the presence at the conference table of Vietminh representatives, and he was searching for some formula to depreciate their role. In his talk with Mr. Molotov this morning,1 he intended to raise the question of a cease–fire at Dien Bien Phu in order to permit the evacuation of the French wounded. A refusal by the other side of this request he believed would harden public opinion in France and Indochina. The formula which he is considering is to have invitations issued to the US, UK, USSR, France, China, and the three Associated States, making an initial conference of eight. This conference of eight would then invite the Vietminh to appear. Presumably they would participate fully thereafter, but at least a distinction would have been drawn in the matter of precedence.
Mr. Bidault also mentioned his desire to get on with the Indochina talks.
The Secretary referred to the ground we had lost in Indochina since the Berlin Conference. He also mentioned our intelligence advice that two prominent Vietminh political figures had arrived at Geneva. Neither Mr. Bidault nor Mr. Eden had any confirmation but both were obviously interested.
Mr. Bidault made the point that he would not consider a general cease–fire, and that when the French used this term, what he had in [Page 594] mind was a formal armistice with all the necessary controls, safeguards, and machinery.
The three Ministers noted that no speakers had been inscribed so far except the Secretary. There was some general discussion of how to advance the work of the conference in this situation. Mr. Eden proposed that thought might be given to a restricted meeting which each member of the conference would attend with a single adviser for a frank discussion of advancing the work of the conference.
Mr. Bidault then read the tabulation of casualties in Indochina for the first three months of this year. The total figure, which was 12,600, was about equally divided between Vietnamese and non–Vietnamese French Union Forces, including Africans and the Foreign Legion. The losses constituted deaths, missings in actions, desertions, and permanently crippled. Of the Vietnamese losses, 2,022 were listed as defections.
The meeting broke up at about 10:45, and it was understood that Mr. Bidault would report the results of his conversation with Mr. Molotov to Mr. Eden and the Secretary at the latter’s luncheon for the three of them today.