French officials said it was pointless to send Foreign Minister Maurice Couve de Murville to be the lone dissenter against U.S. policy in Vietnam.
LONDON — Britain publicly ‘‘deplored’’ today [April 20] France’s decision to slight the foreign ministers’ meeting here of the South East Asia Treaty Organization. This followed Paris’s confirmation that it is planning to send only an observer to the meeting May 3 to 5. French officials said it was pointless to send Foreign Minister Maurice Couve de Murville to be the lone dissenter against U.S. policy in Vietnam. French spokesmen, however, denied reports that this was just the first step toward complete withdrawal from SEATO. — New York Herald Tribune, European Edition, April 21, 1965