Page:Pentagon-Papers-Part V. B. 2. b.djvu/141

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
Declassified per Executive Order 13526, Section 3.3
NND Project Number: NND 63316. By: NWD Date: 2011

SECRET

to require either a border observation team or mediation between two parties at interest. I observed I thought that the border team, whose function would presumably be to observe indirect Chinese aggression, would necessarily include Asiatic membership and that as he well knew, the attitude, of certain Asian countries toward Chinese Communism and toward Ho Chi Minh differed from the views held by the Western Powers; that I presumed the French Government did not look with favor on the treatment of Ho Chi Minh as a party of interest in any case.

I had the impression from Mr. Millet that in its desperation the French Government was for the first time seriously considering United Nations action in Indochina. I did not think it wise therefore, to give Millet even in personal conversation anything that he could describe as a Departmental position beyond that already discussed in the preliminary conversation with the British and French Delegations in September.

Mr. Merchant and Mr. Godley were given the sense of the foregoing on October 14.

SECRET

C
O
P
Y
381


SECRET