Editorial Note
On March 23, 1954, Charles E. Wilson, the Secretary of Defense, addressed a letter to Secretary of State John Foster Dulles transmitting the views of the Department of Defense on the military implications of a negotiated settlement to terminate hostilities in Indochina. The letter was accompanied by two enclosures: 1) A memorandum by the Joint Chiefs of Staff of March 12, titled “Preparation of the Department of Defense Views Regarding Negotiations on Indochina for the Forthcoming Geneva Conference,” and 2) a memorandum prepared by the President’s Special Committee on Indochina titled “Military Implications of the U.S. Position on Indochina in Geneva,” with a covering memorandum of March 17 by General Graves B. Erskine, Chairman of the working group of the Special Committee.
For text of the letter of March 23 and its enclosures, see volume xvi, page 471.