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28 May 1954

Dear Admiral Davis:

Developments over the past few days very clearly indicate that we are approaching a stage in the conference where it is evident that the French are going to settle on terms which the U.S. could not, under present NSC directives, associate itself with. The British have long favored an Indochina settlement on the basis of partition. The Viet Minh in their proposals submitted at the restricted session on May 25 (TOSEC 302) made a proposal which would in effect be partition. The Russians and Chinese have, of course, supported the Viet Minh proposal. In the face of this, the French have no firm position, nor has there been an indication that they have a minimum position. As a result, I feel that we are moving toward the probability that there will be a settlement which will, directly or indirectly, result in the partition of Indochina.

I have discussed the foregoing points at considerable length with Herman Phleger and Alex Johnson. They both recognize the dangers of partition and the impossibility of supervising an armistice in Indochina. There appears to be a feeling of hopelessness inasmuch as the U.S. is not in a position to control the situation. The U.S. position is not at all clear. Someone indicated before the conference we should be flexible — I would say we are now fluid. At the morning staff conferences, during the past two days, there have been discussions of U.S. tactics, and General Smith has indicated that the U.S. should remain firm. He has indicated, however, that we should be realistic, and face the probability that there will be some sort of a negotiated settlement which will result in a loss of at least part of Indochina, and will result in some type of partition. There has been no mention of the point at which the U.S. will disassociate itself from the negotiations. On the contrary, there have been indications that the U.S. will probably have to go along with a settlement even though it is unsatisfactory to the U.S.

Yesterday I attended a meeting with General Smith, Alex Johnson and Ambassador Heath in which we met with Eden and Bidault. The subject of discussion was Eden's proposal which he put forth at the sixth restricted session. Bidault had thoughts of his own on the subject taking a slightly different approach as you will note from the enclosed copy of his proposal. The thing I noted most in the discussion was the all-out effort that the various conferees are making to develop a position to which they feel the Communists will agree. Both Eden and Bidault referred to international supervision of the cessation of hostilities. However, it was quite clear from the discussion that neither are aware of the many difficult problems which will be involved in enforcing an armistice in Indochina. The question Rh