169. Memorandum of a Telephone Conversation Between the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense (Wilson), Washington, May 4, 1955, 10:02 a.m.1
The Sec. returned the call, and W. said he is struggling with the question of a military man for Southern Vietnam.2 The Army thought they picked a competent officer but it has worsened since we first started to talk about it. W. asked how the Sec. rated the importance of his being able to speak French. The Sec. said first would be some satisfactory experience with Orientals—next some demonstrated ability to train and next speaking French. W. said the first should be that he have executive leadership qualities. The Sec. said he assumed they are all good men. The Sec. said we trained Koreans and on Formosa. Also he has to work with the French. The Sec. repeated that in our opinion it is taking a gamble but it is Defense’s responsibility. W. said if he were taking the job, he would want everyone to think he was the best to do it at the start. W. does not consider the chance for success very great—the Sec. sort of indicated agreement. O’Daniel will be there for 2–3 months according to what Collins thinks. W. mentioned that Collins has a fluent interpreter there. W. said the ambassador and military man should complement each other. The Sec. said to some extent—our contacts are largely [Page 356] with the French and the French with the Vietnamese. W. thought of mentioning it to the Pres. Collins thinks the man should have 3 stars. The Sec. said O’Daniel had 2 most of the time. The Sec. has no feeling about it—he would not think he had to have 3. W. said we can always give him another one.