Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, Indochina, Volume XIII, Part 1

751G.00/3–2454

Memorandum of Conversation, by William R. Tyler of the Office of Western European Affairs

top secret

[Washington,] March 24, 1954.

Subject:

• Indochina.

Participants:

• Mr. Pierre Millet, Counselor, French Embassy.
• Mr. MacArthur, C.
• Mr. Bonsal, PSA.
• Mr. Tyler, WE.
• Mr. Galloway, C.

Mr. Millet called on Mr. MacArthur this morning. He said he wished to bring up the remarks made by the Secretary yesterday in his conversation with General Ely.¹ Specifically, Mr. Millet said that Mr. Daridan, Chargé d’Affaires of the French Embassy, had been somewhat unclear as to the significance of what the Secretary had said concerning the question of any U.S. participation in the Indochina war. Mr. Millet asked first whether the Secretary’s remarks should be considered as constituting a new proposal requiring further consideration by the French and further discussion with us. Mr. MacArthur made it clear that the Secretary had been talking about the hypothetical situation which would arise if the U.S. were requested to participate in the Indochina operations with elements of its armed forces. The Secretary had expressed informally and frankly, as is his custom in discussing problems of mutual interest with the French, some of the important factors which would have to be considered in arriving at any U.S. decision involving direct U.S. participation in the fighting in Indochina. He emphasized that the Secretary had not made a new proposal, and that no further action or reply was expected from the French.

Mr. Millet expressed his appreciation of Mr. MacArthur’s remarks and added that since Mr. Daridan had felt uncertain of the import of what the Secretary had said, he had refrained from reporting this part of the conversation to Paris. Mr. Millet then observed that General Ely’s specific question concerning U.S. reaction to Chinese Communist aerial intervention in Indochina had not been answered by the Secretary. Mr. MacArthur said there was no particular significance to this since the Secretary had understood that General Ely was leaving with Admiral Radford a written memo on this subject² which would be considered by the U.S. authorities, and that he, the Secretary, was obviously not in a position to give a formal reply in the context of the conversation. Mr. Millet was also told that the Secretary certainly had not intended his remarks on this subject to invalidate or modify in any way the statements he had made in his St. Louis speech of September 2, 1953, concerning the situation which would arise should the Chinese Communists intervene directly in the Indochina war.

Mr. Millet alluded to statements yesterday by Secretary Wilson concerning U.S. participation in the training of Vietnamese troops,³ and particularly the establishment of a General Van Fleet-type of training mission [as] in Greece. Mr. MacArthur replied that he understood Secretary Wilson had pointed out that the context was a very different one in Indochina from what it had been in Greece. He may well have used the analogy for purposes of general indication of the problem.

Mr. Millet, on leaving, expressed his satisfaction at the conversation and the clarification which he had been given.

1. For memoranda of the conversation, both dated Mar. 23, see pp. 1141 and 1142.
2. The memorandum is printed as an enclosure to the memorandum by Admiral Radford to the President, infra.
3. At his press conference of Mar. 23, the Secretary of Defense was questioned extensively about the purpose of the visit by General Ely and about the possibility of the United States undertaking training responsibilities in Indochina. Secretary Wilson acknowledged that the question of expediting the training of Vietnamese troops was being discussed with the French and that the participation of American advisers was one possibility under consideration. (Minutes of the press conference held by the Secretary of Defense, Mar. 23, 1954, Department of Defense files)