BAO DAI REGIME IN VIETNAM

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26025, 31 January 1950, Page 5

BAO DAI REGIME IN VIETNAM

Pledge Of American Goodwill MESSAGE FROM MR ACHESON

SINGAPORE, January 29. Dr. Philip C. Jessup, the American Ambassador-at-Large, said to-day that he was anxious for the world to know that the United States Government was “looking forward to establishing a closer relationship” with the antiCommunist State of Vietnam. Dr. Jessup stopped in Singapore for a few hours on his way from Saigon to Jakarta in the course of a survey trip through the Far East for the United States State Department. Dr. Jessup released the text of an aide memoire from the Secretary of State (Mr Dean Acheson), which Dr. Jessup had given the former Emperor Bao Dai, head of the new Vietnam Government, on Friday. The aide memoire expressed the gratification of the United States Government at the assumption of Bao Dai of the powers transferred by the French at the beginning of this year, and its best wishes for the future of the State of Vietnam, with which it looked forward to establishing a closer relationship. The message expressed Mr Acheson s personal hopes that Bao Dai would succeed in his present endeavours to establish stability and prosperity in Vietnam, the progress of which the United States Government was. following with close attention. High British officials in Singapore to-day described Mr Acheson’s message as a most important political development. They said it was the first sign of positive United States’ support for the pro-French Vietnam Government.

The British Commissioner-General in South-East Asia (Mr Malcolm MacDonald) has made no secret of his opinion that the Bao Dai GovernJnent is the only alternative to a Communist regime in Vietnam.