Office of the Historian

276. Telegram From the Embassy in Vietnam to the Department of State1

Saigon, December 31, 1965.

2337. For the Secretary from Lodge.

1.
In response to your 1821,2 I called on Archbishop Palmas, told him that I was indeed still interested in meeting his “former Minister” and asked him if there was any news.
2.
Palmas said that he had received a note from the “former Minister” under date of December 23 (when I was in Bangkok) asking to be excused because of his inability to come personally to express his good wishes for Christmas and the New Year. The note went on to say that for more than twenty years, the war had gone on in Vietnam and that he prayed to God to put an end to it, saying that the Vietnamese people had paid a heavy price, and that if the war continued there would be a “general extermination”.
3.
The note went on to say that he was “still waiting for news of the matter we talked about”, adding that “when I do get news I will come and we can examine the question together”.
4.
On December 28, Archbishop Palmas acknowledged receipt of the note. He showed me the note which was written in rather illegible French, and down at the bottom was a rather illegible signature, which could be interpreted as spelling out Hoac. If so, it would confirm our surmises.
5.
Palmas’ theory that the “former Minister’s” initiative had been genuine, but had been quashed by Hanoi as soon as Hanoi heard of it seems plausible.
6.
We then branched out into a general discussion, with Palmas expressing the view that the one thing above all others which was keeping the war going was the division of opinion within the free world. He believed that if the French Government would recognize the true interest of the French people, and merely show verbal non-disapproval of the U.S. effort that it would have a very discouraging effect in Hanoi. The Hanoi regime, it appears, pays attention to French moods and French postures way out of proportion to the amount of chips which France actually has bought in the poker game—which is practically nil.
7.
He said the fact that the Pope had sent messages both to Ho Chi Minh and General Thieu did not mean that he equated them both, or that he was unmindful of the fact that North Vietnam was the aggressor and wished to exterminate Christianity. Indeed, said Archbishop Palmas, if it were not for the arrival of American troops, Christianity would already be in the process of extermination in South Vietnam now, and he, Palmas, would not even be here at this time.
Lodge
  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, POL 27 VIET S. Secret; Nodis; Pinta. The source text does not indicate a time of transmission; the telegram was received at 5:12 a.m. and passed to the White House.↩
  2. Document 269.↩