851G.00/1–1449: Telegram

The Ambassador in France ( Caffery ) to the Acting Secretary of State

confidential

164. Pignon2 told me Wednesday night that he is well aware that government should take adequate measures to assure inhabitants of Indochina that government stands firmly on Bay D’Along agreements.3 He hopes Assembly can be persuaded to ratify them formally. He remarked that he believes Communist successes in China will frighten a great many Vietnamese who have been apathetic or indifferent and cause them to rally to Bao Dai.4

Sent Department 164, repeated Saigon 5.

Caffery
  1. Léon Pignon, French High Commissioner in Indochina.
  2. See telegram 5398, December 16, 1947, 6 p. m., from Paris, Foreign Relations, 1947, vol. vi, p. 150, and despatch 30, June 6, 1948, from Hanoi, ibid., 1948, vol. vi, p. 24.
  3. Former Emperor of Annam negotiating with the French regarding a new régime for Indochina.