Page:Pentagon-Papers-Part V. B. 3. a.djvu/164

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Declassified per Executive Order 13526, Section 3.3
NND Project Number: NND 63316. By: NWD Date: 2011

CONFIDENTIAL
Security Information

11. Such an effort by France and Vietnam coupled with the political maneuver already outlined might lead the Government of Communist China to reflect whether the policy of supporting the Vietminh is still justified, and whether it would not be, in the last analysis, more costly to her than the abandoment of an ally who is unreliable except for a common Communist ideology.

12. The French Government is fully aware that the foregoing observations are of necessity still indefinite and represent only a first attempt to find the best method of hastening the re-establishment of peace not only In Korea but also in the Far East as a whole. The intention of the French Government has been only to indicate the direction in which it believes that an effort should be made, in a spirit of equity justified by a war of seven years duration, the essential purpose of which is the defense of freedom as well as the protection of all of Southeast Asia. The French Government would be happy to obtain the views on this question

of the Government of the United States

and the Government of the United Kingdom

CONFIDENTIAL
Security Information

104