Held in November 1950, this conference in the French town of Pau was designed to celebrate the creation of the Associated States of Indochina in 1949 and to iron out a number of problems concerning relations among the Lao, Cambodians, and Vietnamese. Above all, what would be the nature of the continued Indochinese “association”? Despite Albert Sarraut’s praise of the historic Indochinese past of the Associated States, heated debates at Pau among the leaders of the three states revealed just how contested the idea of a continued “Indochinese” association was. Of particular concern was the prickly question of an Indochinese monetary and customs union for all three countries. Even Vietnamese delegates spoke in favor of creating national currencies instead of maintaining the colonial-era piastre. Echoing arguments from the 1930s, the Lao and the Cambodians feared that the Vietnamese would dominate such a union and dug in their heals. By the end of the conference, it was clear that such joint services would fail to overcome national oppositions coming from the Lao and Cambodians. Unlike the French colonizers and their communist competitors, few non-communist Lao, Cambodian, or even Vietnamese nationalists believed in “Indochina”. For them, the idea only served to preserve French monetary interference and control. Although the organization of the Institut d’émission and the administration of the port of Saigon operated according to an Indochinese model, many services, including customs and the treasuries, transferred to the local governments in the wake of the Pau conference. The Associated State of Vietnam’s leaders also succeeded in freeing themselves of the obligation to take part in any conflict into which the French might enter. In short, Pau pointed up the degree to which the Associated States of Indochina had every intention of realizing their full national independence in opposition to the colonial Indochinese model. In September 1951, for example, Tran Van Huu attended the San Francisco conference with a view to signing a peace treaty with Japan. During this visit to the United States, the Vietnamese prime minister met with Harry Truman and Clement Attlee, symbolizing the increasing autonomy of the Associated State of Vietnam at the international level. The Pau conference also coincided with communist Vietnamese efforts to build up their own policy of Indochinese association via the creation of the Pathet Lao and Khmer Issarak national fronts, resistance governments, and party affairs committees. See also CAMBODIAN RESISTANCE GOVERNMENT; GENEVA ACCORDS; LAO RESISTANCE GOVERNMENT; NEUTRALIZATION OF INDOCHINA.