Telegram, Zhou Enlai to Mao Zedong, Regarding the banquet with the Laotian and Cambodian delegations and Pham Van Dong

Chairman [Mao], Comrade [Liu] Shaoqi, and report to the Central Committee:

On the evening of the 21^st I invited three representatives from Laos, four representatives from Cambodia, and Comrades Pham Van Dong, Hoang Van Hoan and Ta Quang Buu^[1] to a banquet. After I introduced them, the [guests of] the three countries began talking in French, and they exchanged the experience in the past and the whereabouts of [former] schoolmates. During the banquet, toasts were proposed to peace among the three countries and to the friendship among the four countries. We then freely discussed the conference and the situation in our respective countries. The Laotian and Cambodian delegates also thought that direct contact was conducive to the progress of the conference, and they agreed to contact each other directly in the future. After the meal, I invited them to watch the movie "The Butterfly Lovers." In addition to praising the movie, they also said that the movie was of the taste of the East, which made them feel home-sick. At the session of the 22^nd, the attitudes of the representatives of Laos and Cambodian changed significantly. On the 23^rd and the 24^th, Comrade Pham Van Dong met with the representatives of Laos and Cambodia at my place.

Zhou Enlai
June 24, 1954

[1] Vice minister of defense of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, member of the DRV delegation, and head of the DRV military delegation.