Office of the Historian

Conference files, lot 60 D 627, CF 238: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Acting Secretary of State

secret
niact
London, April 13, 1954—3 p.m.

4523. Repeated information Paris niact 622.1 For the Acting Secretary from the Secretary. Paris for Secretary’s party. Following is résumé of my final meeting with Eden this morning:2

1.
We agreed to communiqué already sent you in separate message.3
2.

United action in Southeast Asia. I told Eden I intended to press French re real independence for Associated States, and hoped he would use influence in same direction. Also told Eden after we completed this trip we would get in touch with British to see how best we might proceed in organizing united will to resist aggression in SEA. One possibility was to establish informal working group in Washington. Eden thought this good idea and said Makins would be available.

[Here follows discussion of Trieste, the United Nations Disarmament Commission, and the Korean phase of the Geneva Conference. For the portion of discussion relating to the Korean phase, see page 95.]

6.
There was brief discussion on the composition of the Indochina phase of the Geneva Conference. Eden fully agreed that the Big Four would invite all participants. He also believed that very early at Geneva we would have to discuss composition of Indo-China phase. Last night at Churchill’s dinner I mentioned to Eden possibility of having following participants in addition to Big Four and Communist China: Three Associated States-Thailand-Burma-Ho Chi Minh. Eden said he rather liked the idea of Thailand and Burma and thought Ho’s participation essential. Re possible participation of Ho we agreed that it would be unwise for us to press the French and Associated States on this or take any initiative in raising it.

[Dulles]
  1. For the full text of telegram 4523, see volume vi.↩
  2. Secretary Dulles visited London, Apr. 11–13. For a statement concerning the Secretary’s trip to Europe issued by the White House on Apr. 10, see telegram 3593 to Paris in volume xiii.↩

  3. For text of communiqué transmitted in telegram Secto 2 from London, Apr. 13, see ibid. Final text of the communiqué agreed to by Secretary Dulles and Foreign Secretary Eden was sent in telegram 4513 from London, Apr. 13, not printed (Conference files, lot 60 D 627, CF 263); the communiqué was issued as Department of State press release 192 of Apr. 13 and was published in Department of State Bulletin, Apr. 26, 1954, p. 622.

    For additional documentation pertaining to the Secretary’s discussions with the Foreign Secretary and other British officials, see volumes vi and xiii.

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