Draft Telegram to the Soviet Ambassador in Beijing

SECRET. Copy #____
Draft

BEIJING

SOVIET AMBASSADOR

Visit cde. Zhou Enlai and inform him of the contents of the meeting between cde. Lavrishchev and Pham Van Dong on 23 May of this year (the text of this meeting is sent to you by a separate telegram).

Inform cde. Zhou Enlai that, in our opinion, the preliminary analysis of the Vietnamese friends regarding the conclusion of an agreement between the DRV and France in order to create a broad anti-American front in South Vietnam in the interests of carrying out general elections in July 1956 are in principle, correct.  In pursuing these goals, the government of the DRV could express readiness to guarantee to the French that they would be able to maintain their economic and cultural interests in South Vietnam and that their companies would continue unrestricted activity in Vietnamese territory, as governed by the laws of the DRV and agreements concluded between the DRV and France.

As far as questions such as the establishment of a federation that would unite the DRV and South Vietnam along with the continuing presence of their differing political regimes, the question of preserving in South Vietnam some part of the French expeditionary force for a certain period, advise the Vietnamese friends to return to these questions at a stage when, in the course of negotiations, the French position on the conditions for agreement becomes fully apparent.  We are guided on this matter by that fact that the French themselves, as is clear from Pham Van Dong’s report, are not raising the question of political and military concessions.

Tell cde. Zhou Enlai that Moscow would like to know the opinion of the Chinese friends regarding the ideas laid out above.  Upon receipt of a reply from the Chinese comrades, the USSR Ambassador to Hanoi will be given instructions to relay our ideas to the Vietnamese friends.

Telegraph the results of the meeting.

Pr. 962-vi
27.V.55.