700.5–MAP/8–851
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Deputy Assistant Secretary, of State for Far Eastern Affairs (Merchant)
Subject: Title III of Mutual Aid Bill
| Participants: | Congresswoman Edna F. Kelly (N.Y.) |
| FE—Mr. Merchant |
By arrangement made last night by Mr. Busk, I called on Congress-woman Kelly in her office this morning and spent what I regard as a fruitless hour attempting to answer a wide-ranging non-sequential series of questions.
Her primary concern is with the continued presence of the French Army in Indochina. She has been sold on the idea that Bao Dai is worthless and that the French must get out completely at once. She was contemplating, I gathered, an amendment to the aid bill which would withhold any aid to France as long as they continued to pay the French troops in Indochina. I explained to her as clearly as I [Page 480] could the dilemma which we face in Indochina wherein the withdrawal of the French Army would inevitably mean the passage of complete control of the country to Ho Chi-minh. I went on to point out that it is true there is resentment against the French and that there are many fence sitters who as long as the French remain in Indochina withhold their support of Bao Dai. I granted that Bao Dai (whom the Congresswoman characterized as just as much a Communist as Ho Chi-minh) was probably not as pure as driven snow but that there was no other anti-Communist native leader who combined his courage, political sense and strain of imperial legitimacy. I said that we must continue to give military aid to the French Union forces, continue pressing the French to accelerate the turn-over of responsibility to the Viets, while pressing the Viets to act more responsibly and discharge the responsibilities already given them, and above all, press forward to the creation of an effective national Army, the equipment for which, I pointed out, we are already delivering directly to the Viets.
Among other sources of information, Mrs. Kelly has been talking to and impressed by Ngo Dinh Diem. I cannot truthfully say that I feel I converted Mrs. Kelly to this Government’s policy, although I do not think she will propose any amendments or otherwise tamper with the projected military and economic aid figures for Indochina.
[Here follows discussion of foreign assistance to other areas.]