Geneva Accord

Treaty signed in 1954, following the defeat of the French at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu (Điện Biên Phủ - fig.) that ended the First Indochina War, in which the Viet Minh fought for independence from France. It led to the end of French presence in Vietnam and partitioned (map - fig.) the country into North and South at the 17th Parallel (fig.), a divide that had been intended to be temporarily until elections could be held to unite the country. However, these elections were never held. In the accords, the administration of North Vietnam was given to the Viet Minh, which became a socialist state with Ho Chi Minh appointed as its Prime Minister, while South Vietnam came under the control of Ngo Dinh Diem (Ngô Đình Diệm), who was previously appointed Prime Minister by Emperor Bao Dai (Bảo Đại). Civilians were given the opportunity to move freely between the two provisional states for a 300-day period, which led to ca. one million northerners, mainly minority Catholics, fleeing to the south, fearing persecution by the communists, who already has started their oppression, whereas around 90,000 southern Viet Minh resettled in the Communist North. With the establishment of a communist state in North Vietnam and South Vietnam being declared a new capitalist state (and despite the evident corruption of the regime), the US supported the South with considerable financial aid, in order to counter expansion of communism, which it regarded as a threat to the region, arguing that if one country fell to communism, all of the surrounding countries would follow. The accords and its consequences became the pretext for the Second Indochina War, which after the US got involved became known in the West as the Vietnam War and by the Vietnamese as the American War or the Resistance War against America (map - fig.), in which South Vietnam was supported by the United States, Australia, South Korea, Thailand, and other anti-communist allies, and the North Vietnamese army by the Soviet Union, China and other communist allies. The nearly 20 year-lasting war, which ended in a North Vietnamese victory with the fall of Saigon, eventually led to the reunification of North and South Vietnam (map - fig.), and also resulted in communist governments taking power in Cambodia and Laos. See MAP. 回