Page:Pentagon-Papers-Part V. B. 3. a.djvu/143



in the Associated States are unfit for use, and the remainder have a relatively short life. Raw rubber is available in Indochina for recapping of tires. Commercial control is in the hands of the French, who not only control the very little industry which now exists in the Associated States, but also make reportedly large profits through the importation of French products. Any plans for the development of Vietnamese industry will encounter the opposition of these French commercial interests.

23. The French have been very tardy in the turnover of military leadership responsibility to officers of the Associated States. However, there has been some noteworthy progress recently. I was informed by the Vietnamese Chief of Staff that forty-odd battalions are now commanded by Vietnamese officers. His Majesty, Bao Dai, has signed a decree establishing a "National War College", site not yet selected, to train division commanders and other general officers. In my discussions with General Navarre and his staff, I repeatedly emphasized the need for expansion, to include regimental and division commanders, of a system already initiated on the battalion level in the Associated States and proven on all levels in Korea, that of attaching French advisers to indigenous commanded units of the National Armies of the Associated States, General Navarre has agreed to expedite the turnover of command to native leaders of the Armies of the Associated States as well as giving those armies a "more and more extensive place as well as more and more antonomyautonomy [sic] in the conduct of operations".

Rh