345. Memorandum of Telephone Conversation Between Acting Secretary of State Ball and the President’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bundy)0
Bundy told Ball that he had talked to the President1 after Ball’s call to him. He is very concerned about the public aspect of this thing and picked off a half-dozen points which Bundy has talked to Forrestal about. Forrestal will be working with some of State’s people if that is all right with Ball. Ball said that was fine.
Bundy said he did not think we wanted to get too high level in our comments on this—in the sense of calling the Times and telling them what we think. It is much better that all are briefed along the same line and feed it out as it comes in. Ball agreed.
Bundy said he thought it was important to have an image of our view of it along the lines of what the President has now passed on to Forrestal. In Bangkok and Saigon there will be temptation to say Phoumi was right, the fact that these fellows did fight, and the fact that we have been warning them against the fact that Pno Tie [Nam Tha] is not the area in which you make war. Ball said we had a telegram off to find out if this was the case. The Times this morning characterizes it as a possible Dien Bien Phu. Bundy said this is the kind of sheer nonsense that someone ought to get educated about.
Ball said in a sense it was the Dien Bien Phu when the military commander does not commit his forces up there. Bundy said if it was the Dien Bien Phu the magnitude was all wrong and Ball agreed.
Bundy said he thought it had to be put in perspective that this is a town of 500 which has been infested right away. Phoumi was warned that if he attacked he would get a bloody nose and he has. This does not mean that we want to sound as if we were cheering the PL along. Bundy said he had not read the Times account.
Ball said the story focused on the taking of Mun [Muong] Sing, a little town of 200 up near the border. This was a threat to Nam Tha and the most interesting thing in the Times article was the indication that there were 200 Chinese involved in it and that it was reported from American sources. Ball spoke to Harriman who says there were not more than 10 Americans anywhere around there. It is pretty hard to find the facts. [Page 722] That is one of the difficulties, and whether an American would know a Chinese from a Vietnamese is a little hard to tell.
Bundy said he would be available later this afternoon.
- Source: Kennedy Library, Ball Papers, Laos. No classification marking. Transcribed in Ball’s office.↩
- See Document 344.↩