Foreign Relations of the United States, 1955–1957, Vietnam, Volume I

185. Telegram From the Secretary of State to the Department of State¹

Paris, May 12, 1955—6 p.m.

Dulte 32. Eyes only Acting Secretary from Secretary for President.

“Dear Mr. President:

I have not had time to write you since day before yesterday. Tuesday night² we had another long session with the French on Indochina and again last night, both sessions lasting until 1 a.m.³ I am trying to do the hard thing which is actually to persuade them that Diem is the best hope and that that hope is a possibility only if we treat him as the head of an independent government and not as a puppet to whom we can dictate. The French seemed to think that all we need to do is to crack the whip. I keep emphasizing that if that is the case, then the situation would be hopeless because he could never gain the confidence of his own people. I really think I have made progress. Faure professes to have been genuinely converted.

Last night matters came to a head. Faure wanted us to make an agreement with the French as to our future policies including efforts to influence Diem. I said we would not make any agreement because the subject matter did not lend itself to precision and any agreement would almost surely lead to charges and countercharges. I said I would draft our instructions to our Ambassador following the lines of our policy as previously expounded, and that we would show our instructions to the French for their information, and that I hoped the French would send corresponding instructions to Ely which we could see, but that it must be clear that we were following what I hoped would be paralleled courses because this was in the common interest, but that neither of us had any formal engagements to the other. This they accepted, and the work is going forward on this basis.

Macmillan has been sitting in on some of our meetings and the information which he has from Malcolm MacDonald conforms closely to our own thinking so that the British have been helpful.

[Here follows a report on discussions at Paris unrelated to Indochina.]

Faithfully yours, Foster.”

Dulles

1. Source: Department of State, Conference Files: Lot 60 D 627, CF 447. Top Secret; Niact; No Distribution. On a copy of this telegram in the Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, Dulles–Herter Series, there is a marginal notation by Goodpaster indicating that the President saw this cable on May 13.
2. May 10.
3. See Secto 36, supra, and Secto 42, infra.