751G.00/12–1951
Memorandum by the Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs (Allison) to the Secretary of State
Subject: Chinese Intervention in Indochina
In view of the ominous character of intelligence reports concerning a Chinese preparation for massive intervention in Indochina, it is [Page 563] suggested you may wish to make some brief reference to the Indochina situation at the meeting of the National Security Council on December 19.
In this connection you might say that intelligence reports emanating from Taipei, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Hanoi and Saigon would indicate that the Chinese Communist capability of effecting a massive intervention in Indochina and perhaps Burma has increased significantly. It is reported that there are at present some 200,000 Chinese Communist troops in Kwansi province prepared to move on Indochina as “volunteers”; that the volume of matériel assistance from Red China to the Vietminh has increased; and that rail and road communications between Kwansi province and Tonkin have been put in good working order. The consensus of intelligence reporting would indicate that action on a large scale against French Union and Vietnam forces in Tonkin may be expected on or about the 28th of December. Embassy Paris, meanwhile, reports that Messrs. Pleven and Monnet have expressed to our Ambassador grave doubts as to the ability of the French to continue the war in Indochina unless further assistance from the United States is immediately forthcoming. We have asked Embassy Paris’s opinion as to the unpleasant possibility, which we have long feared, that the French may be preparing to withdraw from Indochina.
It is therefore suggested that the NSC direct, as a matter of urgency, that a staff study be prepared with a view to determining what action this government can take in the event of Chinese Communist support on a large scale of the Vietminh forces either overtly or by means of “volunteers”.1
- Action 597, taken by the National Security Council at its 110th Meeting, December 19, indicates that the Council discussed the situation in Indochina in light of possible Chinese Communist intervention, and, at the suggestion of the Secretary of State, directed its Senior Staff to expedite preparation of a report on U.S. policy toward Southeast Asia, with particular reference to possible courses of action regarding Indochina (S/S Files: Lot 62D1).↩