Declassified per Executive Order 13526, Section 3.3
NND Project Number: NND 63316. By: NWD Date: 2011
No. 38
SECRET
Kunming, China, October 24, 1945.
Subject: Letters from Annamite Leaders;
Situation in Indochina.
The Honorable
- The Secretary of State
- Washington, D. C.
Sir:
Referring to the Consulate General's despatch No. 21 of September 27, 1945, in regard to the situation in Indochina, I have the honor to enclose: (a) copy of a letter addressed by HO Chi Minh, President of the "Provisional Government of the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam" to the Secretary of State under date of October 22, 1945; (b) translation of a letter dated October 22, 1945, addressed by HSIAO Wen, Division of Overseas Affairs official serving with the Chinese Occupation Forces in Indochina, to General CHEN Cheng, Chinese Minister of War; and (c) translation of a letter dated October 22, 1945, addressed by Ho Chi Minh (Wade romanization written HU Chih-ming) and YUAN Yung-jui (Annamite ex-Emperor Pao Tai) to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek.
The originals of these messages were brought to Kunming on October 24 by two United States Army officials who have been serving in the Hanoi area since the latter part of August as members of a G-5 Team for prisoner of war rescue work. Colonel Stephen Nordlinger, Commanding Officer of the Team, informs me that he is carrying with him to Washington the original of the letter to the Secretary of State for appropriate delivery upon his arrival there. The originals of the letters to General Chen Cheng and to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek in a sealed envelope addressed by the senders to General Cheng are being forwarded by this office to the Embassy at Chungking for delivery through United States Army channels. The officers who brought these messages to Kunming were not told by Ho Chi Minh of the contents thereof and the information contained in the letters to General Cheng and the Generalissimo will ostensibly be known only to the Chinese authorities. The Consulate General was requested to make a transation of the letters in as much as it was believed that they might contain information of a military nature of concern to the United States Army authorities.
Summary of Enclosures: In his letter to the Secretary of State, Ho Chi Minh states that he is forwarding various documents regarding the present situation in Indochina. (These documents are being forwarded as accompaniments to a separate despatch.) He refers to French oppression of the Annamites and the desire of the Annamites for realiza-
C-76
