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

368. Memorandum From the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Economic Affairs (Jones) to the Deputy Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs (Dillon)¹

Washington, April 9, 1957.

SUBJECT

• Proposal to Send a Bell-Type Mission to Viet-Nam.

Attached is an exchange of memoranda² with ICA beginning in December 1955 on the question of a Bell-type mission to Viet-Nam. At his request this file was brought to Under Secretary Herter’s attention on April 3.

As this file indicates, the Department has felt that in order to put the aid program in Viet-Nam on a more realistic basis a small group of competent individual experts headed by a personality of sufficient eminence to claim the respect and attention of the United States-Vietnamese Governments should be sent to Viet-Nam in order to recommend policy decisions to be taken with regard to the aid program.

The exchange of views with ICA was briefly as follows:

1. On December 8, 1955, Mr. Hoover sent a memorandum to Mr. Hollister³ with a detailed enclosure referring to Senator Mansfield’s recommendation for a special mission to Viet-Nam and stating that there would be considerable merit in sending such a mission provided its members were carefully selected and the terms of reference well thought out. Mr. Hoover recommended that a special economic mission be sent to Viet-Nam and that the OCB Special Working Group prepare a report on long-range planning for Viet-Nam, Cambodia, and Laos and discuss the terms of a special mission.

2. Mr. Hollister replied on January 20, 1956,⁴ that it might be better to postpone sending a special mission to Viet-Nam pending completion of surveys under way. These included a UN technical assistance mission requested by the Vietnamese Government, a prospective IMF Mission, and a costing study then being undertaken by a small working party from Defense, State, and ICA. State Department officials discussed the State Department proposals for a mission with ICA officials and agreed to defer pushing the project until ICA officials had returned from Viet-Nam.

3. On May 15, 1956, Mr. Hollister followed up his January memorandum with a brief note to Mr. Hoover saying that he wondered if it would be wise to appoint still another mission. He enclosed an internal ICA memorandum listing various types of surveys and describing the nature of the Bell Mission to the Philippines in 1950.⁵

4. On July 25, Mr. Hoover replied to Mr. Hollister⁶ stating that the Department of State continued to believe that a special mission was desirable and asked Mr. Hollister to reconsider his view expressed in his memorandum of May 15. Mr. Hoover also attached a short memorandum on implementation of a mission to Viet-Nam.

5. On October 2, Mr. Hollister replied⁷ suggesting that it might be better to defer any further action on a special mission until various investigations by ICA and by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee were completed.

6. As pointed out below, the State Department as yet has not replied to that letter but has agreed as an interim measure to the sending of an evaluation team to Viet-Nam provided it is staffed with several outstanding experts in economic development and fiscal affairs.

The proposal for a Bell-type mission has been opposed by ICA for various reasons, including: 1) it would undermine the authority of our existing missions in Saigon; 2) it would lead the Vietnamese to expect a larger aid program; 3) it should await the results of studies by the UN and the IMF missions, and 4) it should await the results of studies of our overall foreign aid program by the Administration and by Congress.

The UN mission prepared its report in late 1956 but up to the present time the Vietnamese Government has successfully opposed its publication and we have been able to receive only bootleg copies of this report. The IMF group visited Viet-Nam in February 1957 but some of the members have not yet returned and its report has not yet been published. The ICA inspection team is due to leave for Viet-Nam next week but so far has no members in addition to the usual team of two men.

After a lengthy discussion within the Department, it was decided not to send a formal reply to Mr. Hollister’s latest memorandum on this subject dated October 2, 1956. Rather, oral discussions were held with Dr. Moyer and Mr. Wood of ICA and agreement reached to add personnel to the regular inspection team which ICA was scheduled to send to Viet-Nam in early April.

I recommend in view of the above that you discuss this matter with Mr. Hollister, pointing out the renewed inquiry by Senator Mansfield, and urge on him the necessity of securing one or two top-flight economists to go to Viet-Nam immediately and join the ICA inspection group.

1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 751G.5–MSP/4–957. Secret. Drafted by Young and Price. C. Douglas Dillon was appointed Deputy Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs on March 14.
2. Not attached to the source text.
3. See footnote 7, Document 277.
4. See ibid.
5. The Hollister memorandum and the internal ICA memorandum are attached to a memorandum from Hoover to Hollister, May 24, 1956, not printed. (Washington National Records Center, ICA Director’s Files: FRC 61 A 32, Box 313, Vietnam)
6. The Hoover memorandum and the accompanying memorandum are not printed. (Department of State, Central Files, 751G.5–MSP/7–2556)
7. Not printed. (Ibid., 751G.5–MSP/10–256)