271. Memorandum of Discussion at the 419th Meeting of the National Security Council, Washington, September 17, 19591
[Here follow a paragraph listing the participants at the meeting and item 1, “U.S. Policy in the Far East;” see Document 44. The following discussion of Laos is taken from item 2, “Significant World Developments Affecting U.S. Security.”]
Mr. Dulles said a new phase of the situation in Laos had begun with the arrival of the UN mission in that country.2 The Laotian Government has greater confidence than we do that the evidence at hand will prove the involvement of North Vietnam in Laos. The Laotians claim that the evidence includes eight bodies, some armament, and some eye-witnesses. We have not examined this evidence. The USSR has called for a conference of the nations which attended the 1954 Geneva Conference on Southeast Asia.3 A Chinese Communist communiqué just received supports the Soviet position.4 The U.S. is somewhat worried by the French attitude, which is negative as concerns North Vietnamese involvement.
Mr. Dillon thought the French attitude to which Mr. Dulles had just referred was not a basic French policy, but was derived from the French mission in Laos. This mission is not competent, is anti-U.S., and favors neutralism for Laos. De Gaulle’s emissary to Laos wanted to dismiss the French Ambassador but such an action was stymied by the French Foreign Office. Mr. Dillon believed Paris was receiving its information about conditions in Laos from unreliable sources. We have expressed to the French our concern that their field intelligence is inaccurate.
Mr. Dulles said some of the lower levels of the French Government in Paris insisted that the information being received by the French was correct. Sir Robert Scott, the UK Commissioner-General [Page 624] for Southeast Asia, accepts as a fact the involvement of North Vietnam in Laos, possibly even including the participation of North Vietnamese regular troops.5 In any event, Mr. Dulles thought North Vietnam had not abandoned its objective of overthrowing Laos. Mr. Dillon said the UK had sent Sir Robert Scott to the front in Laos after we had mentioned to the British Embassy here our opinion that the UK Ambassador in Laos was incompetent and that the UK Military Attaché had never been to the front.
[Here follow discussion unrelated to Laos and the remaining agenda items.]
- Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, NSC Records. Top Secret. Drafted by Boggs. The drafting date is uncertain; the source text is dated July 1, 1960.↩
- According to telegram 698 from Vientiane, September 16, the members of the U.N. mission arrived in Vientiane on September 15. (Department of State, Central Files, 751J.00/9–1659)↩
- In the TASS statement, September 14, the Soviet Government called for a new conference of the 1954 Geneva Conference participants to consider the situation in Laos. The Soviets expressed deep regret that the Western Powers had used the U.N. Security Council to undermine the 1954 Geneva agreements, charged that the U.N. mission to Laos was a patent violation of the U.N. Charter, charged U.S. and SEATO officials with contemplating intervention in Laos, and claimed that certain elements in the West were using the Lao situation to poison international relations on the eve of Khrushchev’s visit to the United States. The Soviet statement is summarized in telegram 881 from Moscow, September 15. (ibid., 751J.00/9–1559) The Department of State responded with a statement on September 15; for text, see Department of State Bulletin, October 5, 1959, pp. 475–476.↩
- Not found.↩
- This conclusion is based on Scott’s visit to Vientiane in early September 1959 as reported to the British Foreign Office. A paraphrase of that report is contained in telegram 1401 from London, September 12. (Department of State, Central Files, 751J.00/9–1259; included in the microfiche supplement)↩