Some days after the meeting between President Ho and d’Argenlieu at Ha Long Bay, early in April, Reuter reported, “D’Argenlieu has been named head of the delegation to enter into negotiations with the Government of the DRVN... The delegation will consist of representatives of the Ministries of Economics, Finance, Defence and Overseas France.”
If the report was correct this could only be a scheme of the French reactionaries. D’Argenlieu was a faithful follower of the most wicked type of old style colonialism. Talks between us and him could not produce any good results. The fact that a representative of the Ministry of Overseas France was to be a member of the delegation implied that Viet Nam was still considered as a French colony.
Our press immediately denounced this reactionary manoeuvre to sabotage the agreement. We demanded that the official negotiations be held in Paris on the principle of equality. The French should renounce their intention of including a representative of the Ministry of Overseas France in the delegation. The right people to represent the French government in the talks with liberated Viet Nam would be officials of the French Foreign Ministry. the Reuter report was not confirmed, nor was it denied.
Uncle Ho and his comrades were discussing sending delegations to France and Dalat. The Parliamentary delegation who would pay a friendship visit to the French National Assembly and people would be headed by Comrade Pham Van Dong, who would later also lead the Vietnamese delegation to the official negotiations in Paris. I was designated deputy-head of the government delegation to the Dalat preparatory talks. This delegation would be headed by Nguyen Tuong Tam, the then Foreign Minister of the coalition government of the DRVN.
On April 16, the two delegations set out for the talks. The delegation to Dalat left the Bac Bo Palace at 6 a.m. Uncle Ho had come there earlier to see the delegation off. Once again he told us: “The Nam Bo question and the cease-fire should be on top of the agenda.” He shook hands with each member of the delegation.
It was drizzling. The city was quiet. As the news of the departure of the two delegations had come too late, the people did not turn out to see them off. But some days before, rallies had been held to support the two delegations.
A number of journalists put questions about the prospects of the negotiations. It was difficult to answer them. The answers were still ahead of us. We would reach a political settlement with the French if the French sincerely honoured their commitments and respected the fundamental rights of a free Viet Nam. The success of the negotiations depended not only on us but also on the opposite side. The struggle between the progressive forces and the reactionary forces in Indochina and in France was still raging. The first indications were not very promising. It had been reported that Max André would lead the French delegation. The French government had complied with our request and sent their representatives directly from France. But Max André was a man from the banking world, a member of the Catholic MRP. The leaders of this movement were representatives of the French monopoly capitalists closely connected with the US and the Vatican. With such an interlocutor the conference could not be expected to proceed smoothly. So far as our side was concerned the composition of our delegation was not homogeneous. Nguyen Tuong Tam had refused to sign the agreement the previous month and at the last minute Vu Hong Khanh had to sign on his behalf. Besides, some delegates from Nam Bo whose names were on the list failed to arrive at the time of departure.
At 7 a.m. the plane took off. From above we could see, beneath the clouds, now the jade blue of the sea with its white waves, now the green foliage of the Truong Son Range. Then there would be a river shining with sunlight, winding like a snake. Our ancestors had said that “the mountains and rivers are like a piece of beautiful embroidery.” That was just the image of our fatherland as it was viewed behind the aeroplane’s wing.
That day we only reached Pakse where the French Dakota stopped for refuelling. Just before take-off there was a mechanical failure and the delegation had to stay there to wait for another plane from Saigon. We strolled about the streets, visited an ancient pagoda, then went to the bank of the Mekong. This broad river, red with alluvium, separated Thailand from Laos. On either bank of the river the terrain was flat. The news of the arrival of the government delegation brought along a great number of Vietnamese nationals; such unexpected meetings were very moving.
The following day the plane flew on to Dalat. As soon as we descended from the plane, we were struck by the complete change in the weather. In Pakse it had been very hot but here it was cool like a late autumn day. Dalat was a health resort, a tourist city reserved for the French and Vietnamese belonging to the so-called “upper classes”. There were villas, big and small, everywhere. There were hotels and avenues where one might stroll about and look at the landscape, the endless hills of pines around the city. A really beautiful city.
Our delegation was put up at the Lang Biang Hotel. The hotel looked out onto a quiet lake surrounded by lines of trees. It was beautiful but was called by the French the “Lake of Sighs”. Beyond the lake there were mountains.
On April 18, at 9 a.m., it was announced that at 10.15 a.m. d’Argenlieu would receive the heads of the two delegations at his residence. Then the High Commissioner would meet all the members of the two delegations in order to introduce the French delegation, with Max André as the newly appointed chief delegate. There had been no discussion between us and the French side about this. The Admiral was acting in a patronizing fashion hoping to receive the two delegations at a federal palace in his capacity as High Commissioner. It was known that after meeting the two delegations, the High Commissioner would open the first plenary session. This was also unilaterally decided by the French. Of course, we could not agree.
We sent the secretary of the delegation to inform the French side that the head of the Vietnamese delegation wished to meet d’Argenlieu to discuss the points recently put forward by the French.
At 10 a.m., all the members of the French delegation were present at d’Argenlieu’s palace. Correspondents and journalists were there too. They all waited for us until 11 a.m. As we firmly refused to come to the meeting arrogantly called by d’Argenlieu, the situation was very tense.
The French side thought out a face-saving solution: they invited us to a dinner party. So the first meeting between the High Commissioner and the two delegations took place round a dining table. D’Argenlieu missed the opportunity to open the conference in his capacity as High Commissioner of the Federation.
This was my first meeting with d’Argenlieu. This defrocked priest had small, wily eyes under a wrinkled forehead and thin lips. After spending a moment with him, my impression was that he was an experienced, cunning, arrogant and mean man. Such a one could belong only to the past, to the colonial system.
D’Argenlieu boasted that he knew a lot about us. He inquired after my family, asked about the years in which I conducted underground activities, and about the period of terror under the Japanese. Then he expressed his wish to meet me again for further talks. He also invited me to a mountain-climbing party the following Sunday. Both sides touched upon the prospects of the Vietnamese-French relationship. I said: “There will certainly be many difficulties ahead, but these difficulties are to be overcome. Given a common effort from both sides we Vietnamese can surmount them.”
During the talks, d’Argenlieu said that he was called by some people a “man of silence and asceticism”. Certainly, what the High Commissioner was trying to imply was that he was still a priest at heart. But in reality, he was not so much a priest as a perfidious politician.
The two sides agreed to meet again in a plenary session the following day. The opening session would be presided over by a member of the Vietnamese delegation. This was the first concession made by the French side. It did not mean, however, that the obstacles had been reduced at all, nor that there had been a rapprochement in the positions of the two sides.
The preparatory Conference held its first plenary session on the morning of April 4, at the Yersin Secondary School. The French delegation contained many former administrators such as Messmer, Bousquet, Pignon, etc, and economic, financial and military experts. Some of them had been present in Indochina since the early days of the 1945 August Revolution. Messmer, in particular, had been parachuted into the North in September, 1945. He had been captured by our militiamen but later on had managed to escape.
The political sub-committee met on April 20. We moved that the creation of a favourable political atmosphere for the negotiations and the ceasefire in Nam Bo should be put on the agenda. The French side began to put forward many devious arguments. They tried to avoid discussion of our proposal, by saying that those questions went beyond the competence of the two delegations. We referred to the legal foundations of the March 6 Preliminary Agreement and to common sense in order to force the French side to meet our request. After a long argument, the French made a partial concession. They agreed to include on the agenda the question of “Creating a favourable political atmosphere for the negotiations”. We insisted on putting the question of “a ceasefire in Nam Bo” on the agenda as well.
During the break, the French delegates had a consultation. When the session was resumed, Pignon, political adviser of the French delegation, stated that they were not empowered to consider the question of a ceasefire in Cochinchina. We retorted:
“We wish to know if the French delegation is empowered to discuss the issues raised in the March 6 Agreement.”
Pignon, with much reluctance, replied:
“Yes, we are.”
“Is it not, then, written in this Agreement that “the two Governments shall, at once, take decisions on all necessary measures to put an end to the hostilities?”
The French were thus driven into a corner. By the end of the morning session, they had not yet found a reply. So, the question had to be set aside.
In the afternoon, I went for a walk along Cam Ly spring. The reactionary attitude of the French was all too clear. The negotiations could hardly end well. Anyway, the talks between us and the French would continue... The path was carpeted with pine needles. Wild flowers grew on the banks of the spring. The town was quiet, the air cool and the scenery beautiful. Dalat was, indeed, a magnificent place. The cool breeze and the murmuring pines urged me on until I realized that it was getting dark. I returned to the hotel.
In the evening, I hadn’t been working long at my desk when there was a knock on the door and it was immediately opened. One of the comrades rushed in and said excitedly:
— Please come upstairs. Comrade Thach has arrived!
Pham Ngoc Thach was then fighting in Nam Bo. His name had been announced in the list of our delegation but we had always thought he would never be able to make it. We wondered how he had managed to arrive here at the beginning of the conference. The French still did not know of his arrival.
In a moment, all the delegates, except Nguyen Tuong Tam, turned up. Comrade Thach looked thin, swarthy but vigorous. Happy and deeply moved, we all gave him a tight hug. His voice still bore the militant sentiment of fighting Nam Bo. He told us about his trip from Saigon. It was really a risky adventure. He spoke of the situation in Nam Bo, the sacrifices and heroic deeds of the combatants and the people. We chatted far into the night.
The following day, Comrade Thach was arrested by the French in front of the Parc Hotel. Though our delegation made an energetic remonstrance, our Government protested against the illegal French action, and our people held meetings in many places to demand his release he was only set free after the negotiations ended.