Experts Doubt U.S. Will Enter Indochina

United States intervention in Indochina as a result of the Geneva conference is "very doubtful," two University Far Eastern experts agreed yesterday.

Both Daniel S. Cheever '39, lecturer on Government, and Edwin O. Reischauer, professor of Far Eastern Languages, said that unless the situation in Indochina worsens considerably, the United States will be able to stay out of the conflict.

But America would be quick to enter the war, they thought, if Red China were to take a large-scale role in the fighting. Up to now, Mao Tsc-Tung's forces have limited themselves to giving supplies to the Vietminh troops.

Reischauer also believed that there may be a lull in activity in Indochina, due to the conference at Geneva. "It would be bad propaganda-wise, for the Communists to continue fighting while their delegates are sitting at a conference table," he said.

The loss of Dienbienphu, now under continual bombardment by the Vietminh troops, would not be a crucial military disaster for the anti-Communists, both men agreed. But, they said, it would be a serious psychological defeat for the French and Vietmanese.

Nineteen Countries

Meanwhile yesterday, delegates from 19 countries, called together by the Big Four to bring peace to Asia, met for the first time in Geneva. Although the talks were to discuss Korea as well as Indochina, the urgent question of the fate of South Asia overshadowed the Korean issue in many minds.

French Foreign Minister Georges Bidault issued a statement as the conference opened accusing the Vietminh of "violating the rules of war" by refusing to let the French fly out their many wounded from Dienbienphu.

Bidault added that it was inconceivable for a conference taking place in the birthplace of the Red Cross not to take some action toward a humanitarian truce.

At yesterday's opening session, the delegates organized their procedure in 31 minutes. Today's meeting, however, promises to provide more activity. Soviet Foreign Minister V. M. Molotov will be chairman, and he will choose the conference's first speaker.

Both the South Koreans and the North Koreans have claimed this distinction, and the decision will be completely in Molotov's hands.