United States – Vietnam Relations, 1945–1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense/II. A. Notes

by the Pentagon

1.	Robert Shaplen, The Lost Revolution (New York: Harper & Row, 1965), 58.
2.	Ellen J. Hammer, The Struggle for Indochina, 1940–1945 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1966), 245.
3.	Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled (New York: Praeger, 1967, 2 vols.), II, 706–707.
4.	Ibid., 712.
5.	Ibid., 724; Shaplen, op. cit., 63.
6.	Ibid., 64. Cf., Ellen Hammer, "Genesis of the First Indochinese War, 1946–1950," in Marvin E. Gettleman, ed., Viet Nam (New York: Fawcett, 1965), 81.
7.	Ibid., 82.
8.	Hammer, The Struggle for Indochina, op. cit., 246. General Revers' "Secret" report was widely publicized in 1950, and occasioned a political scandal in Paris known as "the affair of the generals."
9.	Shaplen, op. cit., 64–65.
10.	Ibid., 78.
11.	Ibid., 79.
12.	Ibid., 65.
13.	Ibid., 76.
14.	Hammer, op. cit., 280.
15.	Ibid., 278.
16.	Buttinger, op. cit., II, 722–723; Shaplen, op. cit., 60, 84.
17.	Hammer, op. cit., 269–270.
18.	Paris 837 to State, February 22, 1950.
19.	Memorandum for the President from the Secretary of Defense, dated 6 March 1950 (TOP SECRET).
20.	Charles Wolf, Jr., Foreign Aid: Theory and Practice in Southern Asia, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1960), 82. The quotation is from an Economic Cooperation Administration Report to Congress of June 30, 1950.
21.	Memorandum for the Secretary of Defense from the JCS, April 5, 1950, "Strategic Assessment of Southeast Asia," (TOP SECRET).
22.	State to London 2049, May 3, 1950 (TOP SECRET).
23.	Department of State, Bulletin, May 22, 1950.
24.	White House Press Release, June 27, 1950.
25.	Quoted in Hammer, op. cit., 271.
26.	Shaplen, op. cit., 80.
27.	Ibid., 81.
28.	Ibid., 87.
29.	Ibid., 81–82.
30.	Bernard B. Fall, Hell in a Very Small Place (New York: Lippencott, 1967). 479 ff.
31.	Shaplen, op. cit., 81.
32.	Hammer, op. cit., 283.
33.	Ibid., 299–300.
34.	Ibid., 300.
35.	Ibid.
36.	Shaplen, op. cit., 78.
37.	Ibid.
38.	George McTurnan Kahin and John W. Lewis, The United States in Vietnam (New York: Dial Press, 1967), 33.
39.	Shaplen, op. cit., 94.
40.	Kahin and Lewis, loc.cit.
41.	Shaplen, op. cit., 86; 90.
42.	Ibid., 90, 87.
43.	Ibid.
44.	Ibid., 88–89.
45.	Ibid., 66, 84–85.
46.	Ibid., 91.

1.	Paris Embtel 837 to SecState February 22, 1950 (SECRET).
2.	The Position of the United States with Respect to Indochina, NSC 64, February 27, 1950 (TOP SECRET).
3.	Memorandum for the Secretary of Defense, April 5, 1950 (TOP SECRET).
4.	Ellen J. Hammer, The Struggle for Indochina, 1940–1955; (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1955), pp. 301–302.
5.	Summary and Comments, NSC 161st Meeting, September 9, 1953 (TOP SECRET).
6.	Deptel 868, September 9, 1953 (TOP SECRET).
7.	An experienced French journalist in Indochina wrote: "To be sure, American officers also tried to supervise strategy; but after a few fruitless brushes with a high command that was ferociously attached to its prerogatives they decided to leave it entirely to the French. In the end all the experts of the Military Aid Advisory Group kept in the background, resigning themselves to letting this Indochinese war be fought in the French way." Lucien Bodard, The Quicksand War: Prelude to Vietnam. (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1967), pp. 224–225.
8.	Henri Navarre, Agonie de l'Indochine, (Paris: Librairie Plon, 1956), pp. 27–28; 137–138; Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled, Volume II (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1967); pp. 811, 1079; Robert McClintock, The Meaning of Limited War (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin Co., 1967), p. 174.
9.	Summary and Comments, NSC 161st Meeting, September 9, 1953 (TOP SECRET).
10.	U.S. Joint Military Mission to Indochina, Progress Report on Military Situation in Indochina as of 19 November 1953; 19 November 1953 (SECRET).
11.	Undated appendix to Summary of Progress Report of [O'Daniel] Joint Military Mission to Indochina (SECRET).
12.	Dept of the Army, Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2 (intelligence), November 24, 1953 (TOP SECRET).
13.	Raymond Aron, "Historical Sketch of the Great Debate," in Daniel Lerner and Raymond Aron, eds., France Defeats EDC (New York: Praeger, 1957).
14.	McClintock, The Meaning of Limited War, p. 175
15.	Hammer, The Struggle for Indochina, 1940–1955, p. 328.

1.	NSC 48/1, "A Report on...The Position of the United States with Respect to Asia," December 23, 1949 (TOP SECRET).
2.	NSC 64, "The Position of the United States with Respect to Indochina," February 27, 1950 (TOP SECRET).
3.	Historical Office, Dept. of State, Research Project No. 370, "United States Policy on Indochina, 1945–1954," p.6.
4.	NSC 124/2,"United States Objectives and Courses of Action with Respect to Southeast Asia," June 25, 1952 (TOP SECRET).
5.	NIE-5,"Indochina: Current Situation and Probable Developments," December 29, 1950 (SECRET).
6.	NIE-35, "Probable Developments in Indochina during the Remainder of 1951," August 7, 1951 (SECRET).
7.	NIE-35/1, "Probable Developments in Indochina through Mid-1952," March 3, 1952 (SECRET).
8.	NSC 124/2.
9.	Ibid.
10.	John Foster Dulles, War or Peace (New York, 1950), p. 231; Melvin Gurtov, The First Vietnam Crisis (New York, Columbia Univ. Press, 1967); pp. 25–26.
11.	U.S. Congress, House, Committee on Foreign Affairs, Report of the Special Study Mission to Pakistan, India, Thailand, and Indochina, pursuant to H. Res. 113, H. Rpt. No. 412, 83d long., 1st Sess., May 6, 1953, p; 53, as quoted in Gurtov, op.cit., p. 26.
12.	Speech before the American Legion, St. Louis, Missouri, September 2, 1953.
13.	Memorandum to Secretary of State from Asst Secy for Far East, Mr. Walter E. Robertson, April 28, 1953 (SECRET); AmEmbassy Paris telegram to Dept. State, No. 5766, May 3, 1953 (SECRET).
14.	Historical Office, State Dept., Research Project No. 354, Summary, pp. 8–9.
15.	Memorandum of Conversation, Acting Secretary Walter Bedell Smith and Minister Doridau, French Embassy, August 8, 1953 (SECRET).
16.	NSC 5405, "United States Objectives and Courses of Action with Respect to Southeast Asia," January 16, 1954 (TOP SECRET).