Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, The Geneva Conference, Volume XVI

396.1 GE/5–2854: Telegram

The United States Delegation to the Department of State

top secret

Geneva, May 28, 1954—7 p.m.

Secto 331. Repeated information Paris 349, Saigon 123. Re Deptel 4272 to Paris repeated Geneva Tosec 269 and Saigon 2418,¹ and Paris 4565 to Department repeated Saigon 549 Geneva 304.² Bidault has received full report from Parodi of our proposals. Margerie states Bidault personally thinks they are good and that much of this program can be carried out. There is of course considerable difference between what Bidault may advocate and what Cabinet may agree to but Department’s suggestions have at least been very well received.

Smith

1. In telegram 4272 to Paris, May 26, the Department of State outlined the U.S. views on the independence of the Associated States for use by the Embassy in Paris in discussions with the French. The United States could not “wait for an abolition of all deep-rooted causes and extra-territorial privileges”; the United States must make it “clear that the Treaty of Independence between France and Vietnam represents full and unqualified commitment on part of France which will be carried out in practice.” In order to achieve this purpose, the United States, France, and other countries, associated in a regional grouping for collective defense, could join “in a formal pledge of fulfillment of full independence and sovereignty provided by Article I of Treaty of Independence.” In addition, France and Vietnam should sign the draft treaties immediately and France should undertake to indicate that the French Union was composed of equal and sovereign states, to declare that France would withdraw its expeditionary force from the Indochinese states at an earliest practicable date after an end of hostilities, to provide military aid to the Associated States, and to facilitate Associated States participation in measures required for the defense of their territory. As a final suggestion and one the Department felt was fundamental, France and the United States should encourage the establishment “at earliest date possible of representative and authentic nationalist governments.” (751G.00/5–2454)

   For the full text of telegram 4272, see volume xiii.

2. Telegram 4565 from Paris, May 27, not printed, contained a report that the contents of telegram 4272 had been passed to the French. (751G.00/5–2754)