Office of the Historian

651.51G/11–654

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Acting Director of the Office of Philippine and Southeast Asian Affairs (Young)1

confidential
[Washington,] November 6, 1954.

Subject:

  • French Mission in Hanoi

Participants:

  • Mr. Pierre Millet, Counselor, French Embassy
  • Mr. Kenneth T. Young, Jr., Acting Director, Office of Philippine and Southeast Asian Affairs

Mr. Millet came in to see me this morning at the request of his government to inform the Department of State regarding the status of the French Mission in Hanoi. According to Mr. Millet, when Mr. Sainteny, head of that mission, had an interview with Ho Chi Minh a few weeks ago, the latter requested a statement from the French of [Page 2218] the “quality” in other words the purpose and terms of reference of the Sainteny mission in Hanoi. Sainteny reported this to Paris. The French Government has decided that the basis for the Sainteny Mission in Hanoi should be the exchange of letters of July 21, 1954, between Mendes-France and the Viet Minh Foreign Minister, Dong, in Geneva by which French economic, financial and cultural interests in North Viet-Nam are guaranteed. Mendes-France proposes to send a letter to Ho Chi Minh referring to the letter of July 21, 1954, and designating Sainteny to take care of those interests and requesting the Viet Minh regime to facilitate Sainteny’s mission.

The French Government anticipates that the Viet Minh will reciprocate not only by accepting this statement of Sainteny’s status but also by requesting that a Viet Minh mission be stationed in Paris for similar purposes. Mr. Millet said that it would be difficult for his government to reject this request.

I told Mr. Millet that personally this information was of some concern. I asked him why it was necessary to have such an exchange of letters with the Viet Minh. His answer was that the Viet Minh had requested an explanation of Sainteny’s mission which the French Government could not avoid. As to granting the Viet Minh request for a reciprocal mission in Paris, I pointed out to Mr. Millet that this would not find favor in the United States and it would seriously question and oppose.

  1. This conversation was summarized in telegram 1727 to Paris (repeated to Saigon and Hanoi for information), Nov. 9. (651.51G/11–954)↩