382. Memorandum of a Conversation, Department of State, Washington, May 10, 19571
SUBJECT
- Vietnamese Assistance in Stabilizing Laos
PARTICIPANTS
- His Excellency Ngo Dinh Diem, President of the Republic of Viet-Nam
- His Excellency Nguyen Huu Chau, Secretary of State at the Presidency and Secretary of State for the Interior
- His Excellency Tran Van Chuong, Ambassador of Viet-Nam
- The Honorable Walter S. Robertson, Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs
- The Honorable Elbridge Durbrow, American Ambassador to Viet-Nam
- Mr. Kenneth T. Young, Jr., Director, Office of Southeast Asian Affairs
- Mr. Thomas J. Corcoran, Officer in Charge, Viet-Nam Affairs
- Mr. Charles Sedgwick, Interpreter
Mr. Robertson said that we were interested in Laos, as were the Vietnamese, and wondered how President Ngo thought Viet-Nam could aid in stabilizing Laos. President Ngo replied that if things went well in Viet-Nam and if the high plateau resettlement project was carried out things would go well in Laos. Mr. Robertson suggested that Viet-Nam–Laos coordination of frontier control, opening the road from Tourane to the Lao frontier and increased training of Lao personnel for expediting the transshipment of goods through Viet-Nam to Laos would all be useful. President Ngo said that Souvanna Phouma had brought these questions up last year and that the Government of Viet-Nam was ready to do anything it could to help Laos. The Vietnamese had taken a number of young Lao visitors through their ministries to show them how they operated. These visits had been arranged at the suggestion of an American officer, Captain Rufus Philipps.2 Viet-Nam’s relations with Laos were cordial and there was mutual sympathy between the two governments.
Mr. Robertson asked if the Vietnamese were in a position to give the Lao advice in handling Viet Minh infiltration. President Ngo said they would have to go slow in this matter which would depend on the Lao Government. The Lao army and civil servants would ask nothing better. However, the Lao heads of government had a strange complex due to French influence. This influence was not good. Whereas the staff of the French Embassy in Saigon was composed of career Foreign Office personnel the French representation in Laos and Cambodia was made up of old colonial service officers, the same ones who had lost the war in Indochina. Ambassador Payart in Saigon was annoyed at this state of affairs, since the old colonialists in Laos and Cambodia were not coordinating their policy with him. In trying to find jobs for old colonial administrators who could not be absorbed in what was left of the French Empire they had dumped a particularly poor one into Vientiane as Counselor of the Lao Government. This man also happened to be the son-in-law of Prince Phetsarath. It must be remembered that the French are extremely chauvinistic and that they detested American influence. In order to prevent the spread of American influence into Laos and Cambodia they had shortsightedly encouraged neutralism. The country most annoyed by this state of affairs was Australia. The Australians were very sensitive about anything which threatened the security of Southeast Asia.