Page:Pentagon-Papers-Part-V-B-3b.djvu/178

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

 

POSSIBLE U. S. INTERVENTION IN INDO-CHINA
(NSC Action 1074-a)

PROBLEM

1. To consider and make recommendations to the President on appropriate action regarding Indo-China and on the need for U.S. military intervention.

SUMMARY

2. The paper consists of a brief report from the Planning Board and an annex which analyzes alternative forms of U.S. intervention. The annex is summarized in TAB A:

3. The report states there are four issues to be decided by the Council. These are:

a. Will Indo-China be lost unless the U.S. commits combat forces?

This involves several specific questions:

(1) Is the military situation critical? (The report says not yet but that it is deteriorating.)

(2) Are the French likely to negotiate an unsatisfactory settlement at Geneva unless the U.S. is prepared to intervene? (The report says this is uncertain.)

(3) Have we exhausted all practicable political and diplomatic measures to encourage the French to live up to their commitments? (T e report says the U.S. should make a maximum diplomatic effort to cause the French and Associated States to continue to fight to a successful conclusion.)

b. What are the risks, requirements, and consequences of alternative forms of U.S. military intervention?

(See the annex or TAB A — The alternatives, to be valid, involve assumptions: either the French and Associated States both will invite U.S. military intervention or the Associated States will issue the invitation alone if the French intend to withdraw. The annex also discusses the question of use of nuclear weapons.)

c. Should the U.S. intervene rather than lose Indo-China and if so on which alternative?

(The risks of intervention are high, but the loss of Indo-China would result probably in, at least, the loss of South East Asia. A regional grouping (Altern. B) would bring Asian allies to help fight and thus be good, although it would require time and a need to give defense commitments and assurances that intervention is not intended to overthrow