Page:Pentagon-Papers-Part V. B. 2. b.djvu/138

 French authorities to accomplish the equipment of the Indochinese national armies (described by the French Delegation to the American Delegation in preliminary conversations) out of the equipment to be supplied by the United States, The French Delegation pointed out that equipment for French Union forces now engaged in combat took precedence over equipment for national armies, the Secretary of State observed that the United States Government considered the formation of national armies a prerequisite to the final military and political solution of the Indochinese problem and, therefore, the United States Government must emphasize its desire that the French authorities accomplish the formation and training of the national armies described by them and the equipment of those armies from the military assistance program based on French requests of March as confirmed and supplemented by the Melby-Erskine report.

3. The French Delegation was advised that the United States had assigned to the initial military assistance program to Indochina the highest priority; that delivery of equipment under this program, totalling about $31 million, would be accomplished for the most part by the end of the year. The French Delegation was further assured by the Secretary of Defense and by the Secretary of State that the United States Government would assign the highest priority to the delivery of military assistance identified in the French request of March 1950 as confirmed and supplemented by the Melby-Erskine Report, The French Delegation stated that of its request of March 1950 the first three categories (a), (b), and (c) will have been supplied by the end of the year; that their next priority requirements were expressed in categories C O P Y Rh