396.1 GE/5–1054: Telegram
The United States Delegation to the Department of State
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Secto 160. Repeated information Paris 230, Saigon 91. Initial French reaction is that while Viet Minh proposals are clever, they may not under present circumstances have as much effect on French opinion as they were obviously calculated to have. French press officer held press conference before this afternoon’s session ended with view to having comments in correspondents’ hands simultaneously with text of Viet Minh proposals. Points made included that if expeditionary force left, freedom would be finished in Vietnam, that proposal like other Communist proposals in past envisaged arrangement between two competing governments of which Communist one always won out, that proposal would mean three Communist republics in French Union, that Poland and other satellites were a good object lesson as to Communist promises re individual liberties, national economies and cultural matters.
USDel has avoided comment on proposals.