0 - The Black Vault

• • THE BDM CORPORATION
Though
proposed by the US,
the Geneva Accords zonformed closely to the terms
the settlement was viewed by some members of the administration
to contain the elements of defeat.
Part of the Free World's
"assets" in the Far East had been "lost" to the Sino-Soviet bloc (much
China had been "lost" to Mao Tse-tung's forces). In addition, allies of
the US had backed away from an opportunity to deal with the communists by
force of arms (United Action). And lastly, the US had been compelled to
at-end an
international conference which conferred to the communists by
diplomacy what they had gained by force.
In public statements and later in his memoirs, Pres'dent
Eisenhower gave glimpses of his reasoning with respect to this period, At
the time of Dier Bier. Phu, he noted:
as
It is very important, and the great idea of
settilg up an organism is so as to defeat the domino
result. When, each standing alone, one falls, it has
effect on the next, and finally the whole row is down.
You are trying, Through a unifying influence, to build
that row of dominoes so they can stand the fall of one,
if necessary,
Now, so far as I am concerned, I don't think the
free world ought to write off Ind3china. 1 think we
ought to all look at this thing with some optimism and
some determination. I repeat that long faces and
defeatism don't win battles., 18/
Later Ike wrote, "I am convinced that the French could not
win the war because the internal political situation in Vietnam, weak and
confused, badly weakened their military position," Nevertheless, he persevered,
believing that "the decision to give aid (to the French) was almost
compulsory. The United States had no real alternative unless we were to
abandon Southeast Asia." 19/
The Geneva Accords Conference of 1954 was followed by more
t;ian a year of pessimism over the future of Indochina. Despite or perhaps
because of that pessimism, the US stepped-up its aid to South Vietnam. In
the fall of 1956, SEcretary Dulles said, "We have a clean base there now,
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