Conference files, lot 60 D 627, CP 331
Memorandum by the Special Adviser to the United States Delegation ( Heath ) to the Head of the Delegation ( Smith )1
Subject:
- French request concerning your visit to Bao Dai.
Ambassador Chauvel this morning showed a member of the U.S. Delegation a telegram from French Commissioner General Dejean in Saigon.
The telegram was concerned principally with the very bad reaction to the Secretary’s press conference remarks on May 11 to the effect that Indochina was not indispensable to the defense of Southeast Asia.2 Dejean felt that this statement had destroyed the last French–Vietnamese trump at Geneva: the threat of U.S. intervention in Indochina. This feeling was strengthened by the fact that Secretary Wilson, General Van Fleet, and General Hull were not planning to visit Indochina during their tours of the area. However, Dejean understands that Secretary Wilson now intends to stop in Indochina.
With a view toward lessening the reaction to the Secretary’s remarks, Ambassador Chauvel (speaking, I understand for Bidault) asked if you could tell Bao Dai that the U.S. position on Indochina has not changed, that we still consider it the key to defense of Southeast Asia, and that we are not planning to let it go to the Communists.
Ambassador Chauvel also said that M. Bidault agreed that Bao Dai should not go back to Viet-Nam for a week or ten days, since his absence would paralyze the Vietnamese Delegation. M. Bidault does feel [Page 822] that Vietnamese Prime Minister Buu Loc should return to Saigon immediately.
- Drafted by Getz.↩
- For summary of the Secretary’s press conference, see footnote 1, p. 772.↩