130. Memorandum for the Record, by Senator Mike Mansfield1
At 4:45 p.m. on April 21st, I was visited by Pierre Millet, Minister of the French Embassy, Washington, DC, who discussed with me the Indo-China situation. He talked about the possibilities of replacing Ngo Dinh Diem with somebody else and stated that in the opinion of the French, he could not carry on and that General Ely and General Collins had arrived at that conclusion. He emphasized that Ely had changed his mind just recently and stated in effect that the position he had assumed in regard to Vien may have been too rigid. I accepted that statement but told him that in my opinion that if Diem fell no one man could replace him out of the 4 or 5 being considered and that the result will be chaos and civil war and that the country would become an easy pray [prey] to Ho Chi Minh and the communists. Evidently, he was here to pressure me into changing my position on Diem but I still feel he is the only man who stands a chance and it is a long chance of keeping South Vietnam free. I was not surprised when Mr. Millet came here to see me although I was supposed to see the French Ambassador. It appears to me that the Administration in discussing the Indo-China situation with the French Ambassador here is in effect putting the major responsibility on me. As to what our future decision will be vis-à-vis the retention or overthrow of Diem I pointed out to Mr. Millet that the responsibility lay with the President and Secretary of State and that it was up to them to assume that responsibility. All I could do was to make my views known.
- Source: University of Montana, Mansfield Papers, Series XXII, Box 107, Vietnam.↩