Conference files, lot 60 D 627, CF 303

Memorandum by the Special Adviser to the United States Delegation (Page) to the Coordinator of the Delegation (Johnson)

top secret

I saw Laloy this morning. He stated that he had not yet seen Mr. Bidault who had just returned and who was going back to Paris this evening. Bidault will attend the Korean Plenary this afternoon and I [Page 1120] suggested that it might be a good idea if he and the General could get together for a few minutes during the intermission.

It seems that the French delegation took a very dim view of yesterday’s Plenary and believed it represented even a further hardening of Communist position. What seems to distress them the most is the Communist proposal, made by Dong and strongly supported by Molotov, that bilateral political talks be carried on between the French and the Vietminhese parallel with the military talks. He felt that this proposal might also be an attempt to influence French public opinion, for if turned down by Bidault, segments of French foreign opinion would say that Bidault was not taking every opportunity to arrive at a peace in Indochina and was still backing up Bao Dai. So far as Laloy was aware, the French would continue to adhere to their position that a cease-fire must be agreed upon before political discussions were initiated. He had no other views on the Indochinese phase of the Conference or of the termination of the Conference saying that so much depended upon action in Paris tomorrow. He was inclined to think that the French Government would fall, but that a new government could be formed without Laniel and Pleven, “the two enemies of the people,” possibly headed by Faure.