16. Memorandum of Conversation Between Secretary of State Dulles and Foreign Minister Couve de Murville0
In the course of driving to Orly in the car with Couve de Murville we spoke of the Chinese Communists. The Foreign Minister said that they surmised that the Chinese Communists now had quite an influence on Soviet policy. I said I assumed that “you do not contemplate any change in your non-recognition policy.” The Foreign Minister said that they did not contemplate any such change at least for the time being. Some consideration had been given to it on the theory that the Chinese Communists were there to stay, but the Foreign Minister said that he had pointed out to President de Gaulle that recognition would run strongly counter to the policies of President Diem of Vietnam and that it was important to preserve French influence in Vietnam. Thus we could assume that at least for the present there would be no change. I pointed out that the UK recognition policy had brought no good results and that the whole free world position around the Sino-Soviet orbit would be greatly weakened particularly in Asia if France should change its policy.
- Source: Eisenhower Library, Dulles Papers, General Memoranda of Conversation. Confidential. Drafted by Dulles. The Secretary visited Paris July 3–6.↩