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Secretary said he felt French desire obtain firm commitment from us on which they could draw was understandable, but equally understandable in circumstances is our determination not rpt not to give them such blank check. Secretary confirmed US position as stated by Dillon (4766 from Paris) that use of Marines would not rpt not be excluded provided an agreed operational plan required their presence. He said it was useless and illusory to attempt to obtain from us at this time a commitment more specific on this point than that which we had already given.

With regard to what we would do in event act of open aggression by Chinese, Secretary read relevant extracts (last four paragraphs of section XX Roman four) from his Los Angeles speach which is being separately transmitted.

Bonnet expressed surprise that we considered French Govt had not rpt not made up its mind with regard to internationalization of Indochina war and said he considered request had already been made by French. Secretary pointed out that our offer on basis certain specific conditions had been made a month ago in context of situation at that time, which confirmed and made precise earlier representations. Since then things had changed rapidly and would doubtless continue to change. For this reason delay was regrettable, and further delay would not rpt not improve situation with regard to any role we might considered playing.

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