Editorial Note
On the morning of Friday, March 27, 1953, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles met with French Foreign Minister Georges Bidault to discuss issues other than Indochina. At the same time, George M. Humphrey, Secretary of the Treasury; Harold E. Stassen, Director for Mutual Security; and C. Douglas Dillon, United States Ambassador in France, met with French Premier René Mayer, Finance Minister Maurice Bourgès-Maunoury, and other officials, on economic matters. In the afternoon, a second ministerial plenary meeting was held at the Department of State. The 69 participants included Secretary Dulles, Secretary Humphrey, Stassen, Premier Mayer, Foreign Minister Bidault, and Finance Minister Bourgès-Maunoury. Indochina was not discussed in any substantial manner. Records of these meetings are in file 611.51 and in Conference files, lot 59 D 95, CF 141. For information on the proceedings, see telegrams 5015, 5011, and 5016, all dated March 28, printed in volume vi.
In addition, Jean Letourneau, French Minister for the Associated States, and his advisers met with Frank C. Nash, Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, and other American officials at the Pentagon on the morning of March 27. Letourneau defended French military strategy in Indochina, pointing out that far from assuming a static posture, the French were carrying out offense operations. He also stressed that the military situation did not allow for conventional military operations. The Minister also outlined plans for increasing Vietnamese responsibility and the size of the Vietnamese National Army. He then set forth plans for pacification to be [Page 435] carried out by newly created Vietnamese commando units while the regular French expeditionary force carried the battle to large organized Viet Minh forces. The French aim was the destruction of the main Viet Minh battle corps in 1955. Letourneau emphasized that execution of these plans required additional outside financial support. On the afternoon of March 27, General Paul Allard, Chief of Staff of the French Expeditionary Corps in Indochina, provided United States officials with additional information.
The United States verbatim records of the Pentagon sessions of March 27 are in Conference files, lot 59 D 95, CF 138. The strategic plans presented by Letourneau and General Allard are further described in documentation which follows.