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 * (b) Major difference over 1950 is addition of about 20,000 indigenous troops. Increase in total troop strength is from 331,516 to 351,250. These figures were presented before the recent troop loss in Tonkin. The 20,000 increase is made up largely of the net addition of 18 battalions to the Vietnam Army. Equipment for this increase is over and above requests made to the Melby-Erskine Mission- Equipment for these 18 battalions is not included in the 1951 budget. It has not been programmed by the French. Apparently, the French do not give the formation of these battalions a very high priority. U.S. representatives emphasized to the French that equipment for the National Armies must come from the equipment requested of the Melby-Erskine Mission. The U.S. representatives also emphasized that, with respect to U.S. military assistance, the first concern was to equip French Union Forces to meet the immediate threat, but that the French could readjust the distribution of this equipment in such a way as to provide some materiel for the National Army contingents.


 * (c) French Ministers fully agree on formation of National Armies. They asked U.S. finance pay and maintenance, which U.S. representatives did not accept.


 * (d) The French accepted the U.S. suggestion that the distribution of U.S. equipment between French Union Forces and the National Army contingents shall be determined in collaboration with U.S. authorities in Saigon, i.e., Genera! Brink. The State Department has included this point in a draft aide-memoire to the French Government to eliminate any possibility of misunderstanding.


 * (e) The French Ministers stated that no reduction in the Indochina budget was possible, that France is giving highest priority to equipment for Indochina, and that no evacuation of Tonkin is contemplated at the present time, but that any eventual evacuation will be taken only after consultation with the U.S. and the U.K.


 * (f) Defense Minister Moch asked for a squadron of B-26's which French authorities had requested of the Melby-Erskine Mission. Secretary Marshall informed Moch that 10-20 B-26's and 5 spares would be made available out of the U.S. pipeline to Korea. Delivery date is anticipated as early December, with some of the planes arriving in Indochina in November. The question of whether or not the French have the personnel and maintenance facilities for these planes was not raised with the French representatives.

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