Hi
Who were the French negotiators for French Government under V. Auriol/ R. Coty (French Fourth Republic) tasked with persuading President H. Truman to aid France in Vietnam? How much persuasion did it take? Was it a long drawn-out negotiation? Who on the US side was the most influential advisor?
I look forward to your feedback.
David McCullough’s Truman doesn’t say, and Google didn’t come up with the answer, either. I’ve never read that there was a French delegation sent specifically for that purpose. Perhaps it was just the French ambassador and/or military attaché in Washington, acting on instructions from Paris?
That must be it. I guess the French leaders themselves didn’t sit down with Truman and his advisors to persuade him to back them in their war with Ho Chi Minh’s forces. Their communication may have been strictly through their embassy in Washington. Surprising that there weren’t more notable figures from France dealing with Truman. That’s what I would have expected.
Thanks Elendil’s Heir
Off topic, but the Pentagon Papers revealed that the French asked for the use of American dirigibles: code for atomic bombs.
Didn’t Giáp later say he was more worried about the possibility of the French using poison gas than atomic weapons?
Truman’s Memoirs (Vol 2, p. 437) mention a Jan. 1951 visit to Washington by French Prime Minister René Pleven, and says the first of their three sessions together was devoted to Asian problems. Truman is primarily discussing China and Korea in this passage, and doesn’t mention much specifically about Indo-China. So I’m not sure if that meeting was where the ask took place.
1944 1954 Henri Bonnet
1954 1956 Maurice Couve de Murville
Would any of the above French Ambassadors to the US have ever have met Truman directly? Do ambassadors typically meet American presidents directly?
I could be wrong, but I don’t think the President will meet with a foreign ambassador. That would most likely be the Secretary of State Dean Acheson.
They always do when the ambassadors first arrive in Washington and present their credentials, but those are more social calls and photo ops than anything else.
More substantive meetings between U.S. presidents and foreign ambassadors are rarer, although they do happen, most often when the ambassador is from an important country. Anatoli Dobrynin, longtime Soviet ambassador to the U.S., was famous for his access to the White House over the span of many years. British ambassadors Cecil Spring Rice and David Ormsby-Gore were known for their close ties to TR and JFK, respectively.
Truman left office in January 1953, so that cuts it to Bonnet.
U.S. aid started in July of 1950.
The significance of that date is that it’s a month after the Korean War starts and six months after the U.S. formally recognized Nguyen Phan Long’s government. I doubt it took much urging to get Truman to offer aid to fight another communist insurgency. Vincent Auriol himself probably contacted Truman directly, or maybe the other way around. (Not Coty: he wasn’t in power until 1954.)
Thanks Exapno Mapcase. The two certainly met in Washington.
File:Photograph of President Truman and President Vincent Auriol of France, during Auriol’s visit to Washington. - NARA - 200459.tif
Thanks for clearing that up Elendil’s Heir.
Yes, but that picture is dated 28 March 1951, a year later than the start of aid.
Just looking through the Chicago Tribune archives to flesh out the picture a bit:
1950 Jan 28 US turns cold shoulder to French request for Marshall Plan–style aid to Indo-China.
1950 Feb 7 US and Britain recognize French-backed Vietnam (and also Laos and Cambodia).
1950 May 7 US Sec. of State Acheson met in Paris with his British and French counterparts to confer about defending against communism. An informed source said “Aid will be shaped for France in the Indo-China war. . . . The French seek quick help from the US . . . . Approximately $15,000,000 has been tickete from the $75,000,000 which President Truman was authorized to spend in meeting the communist threat in the orient."
1950 Jul 17 American and French military and diplomatic leaders met in Saigon to step up the battle against communist-led insurgents. . . . “the first full meeting of American and French military and diplomatic experts since President Truman’s announcement of increased aid to France for Indo-China”
1950 Sep 3 US aid to French forces in Indo-China sped up in anticipation of a renewal of large-scale fighting.
1951 Jan 29 Truman meets with French Premier Pleven in Washington, and reportedly asks for no man power but a stepped-up flow of war materiel.
Thanks Mr. Downtown. Very helpful. Thank you all.