Office of the Historian

41. Memorandum From the Special Assistant at the Embassy in Vietnam (McCarthy) to the Special Representative in Vietnam (Collins)1

Saigon, 12 February 1955.

SUBJECT

  • … Requirements of the Viet Namese Government

REF

  • Memorandum, same subject, dated 30 January 19552
[Page 87]
1.
The following information and comments are intended to supplement the information contained in reference.
2.
The Viet Namese Government estimates that a sum of five million piasters will be required monthly for approximately the next five or six months for payments to the leaders of the Cao Dai and Hoa Hao confessional forces.3 Leaders of these forces are pressing the Government for the funds necessary to maintain their forces which are outside the National Army. Since the Government does not wish to integrate these forces into the National Army and believes that some means of support must be provided for them temporarily to prevent their turning to banditry. … The number of payments that will be necessary is undetermined and will depend on the progress made by the Government in developing the capacity of the National Army to counter any threats of rebellion by the leaders of the confessional forces and upon the determination of some solution for the employment of their troops. The Binh Xuyen are believed not to be included in the Government’s plans in this regard. The most recent information available to this office is that Binh Xuyen General Bay Vien has not approached the President personally to request payment for his forces.
3.
The amounts and nature of future payments to Emperor Bao Dai also remain to be negotiated. However, the Government has the firm intention to provide for the support of the royal family on a legal basis by the Viet Namese Government. The best estimate made available to this office is that this will entail payments of about five million piasters monthly to Bao Dai beginning in the near future. The Government probably will settle with Bao Dai on payment of a fixed sum in compensation for shutting off his previous sources of income in the Fall of 1954 and will try to secure his approval for smaller monthly payments in the future.

. . . . . . .

Philip B.K. Potter4
For the Special Assistant
  1. Source: Department of State, Saigon Embassy Files: Lot 61 F 22. Top Secret.↩
  2. Not found.↩
  3. See Document 35.↩
  4. The source text is a file copy which bears this typed signature.↩