Memorandum, State Department Summary of Telegrams

NLTCHaval Aide) 98 B OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE WASHINGTON October 16, 1950 TOP SECRET SUMMARY OF TELEGRAMS INDOCHINA Ambassador Heath in Saigon has informed the Department that in his opinion the military and political situation in Indochina demands the highest level consideration in the US Government of immediate steps which may be taken to pre. - vent the loss of Indochina and with it, all of Southeast Asia. He points out that the consequences of French defeats are far graver than are indicated by the battle losses and that the prime source of danger is the snow-balling effect produced by the impact of the defeats on the already deteriorating political situation. He states that, while increased Chinese Communist assistance to Viet Minh can be expected, the French up to the present do not appear to have grasped the full implication of the practical disappearance of the Chinese border as a line of demarcation between Communist China and Ho Chi Minh and have shown continuing squeamishness about taking any action which would provoke the Chinese Communists. In this situation he feels that most of the measures now being taken by the US are too little and too late. Ambassador Heath proposes, therefore, that high level considera- tion be given to the following measures at the earliest possible time: 1) an early decision and declaration for the formation of a Vietnamese army with its own commander, staff nucleus, and supply service which will cooperate with the French as an ally and associate rather than as a subordinate, it being understood that the US may be called upon for some direct financing of this force; 2) the scale of urgency for delivery of US aid must be completely transformed, with the most urgently needed items being moved to Indochina with the same rapidity as they would be moved under the direction of the JCS to a US force engated in the Pacific area; 3) early French-US consultation on military planning in this area; 4) development of a means for applying some of the resources of United Nations to this theater. Ambassador Heath states that Russia and China in fact are invading Indochina by using the Viet Minh force as an invasion force and that we must face the possibility that it may only be a question of weeks, or even days, before Communist China participates overtly in this aggression. DECLASSIFIED TOP SECRET E.O. 12065, Sec. 3-402 -Ann State Dept. Guidelines, March By DEB NLT, Date 6-10-85