Geneva Conferences

 

any of various international meetings held at Geneva, Switzerland. Some of the more important ones are discussed here.

1 International conference held Apr.–July, 1954, to restore peace in Korea and Indochina. The chief participants were the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, France, the People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea, Vietnam, the Viet Minh party, Laos, and Cambodia. No agreement was reached on transforming the Korean armistice into a permanent peace, but three agreements were reached providing for an armistice and political settlement in Indochina. (For the main terms, see Vietnam; Cambodia; Laos.)

2 The so-called Summit Conference, held in July, 1955, was an attempt to restore mutual trust between East and West. President Dwight D. Eisenhower (United States), Premier Nikolai Bulganin and First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev (Soviet Union), Prime Minister Anthony Eden (Great Britain), and Premier Edgar Faure (France) discussed German reunification, European security, disarmament, and cultural and economic interchange. Although no substantive agreements were reached, the meeting closed on a note of optimism. Directives were issued for a meeting of the foreign ministers of the four countries to be held later that year to reach agreement on German reunification, disarmament, and other issues. For the Geneva conferences of foreign ministers in 1955 and 1959, see Foreign Ministers, Council of.

3 Conference beginning Oct., 1958, between Great Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union, held in an attempt to reach an accord on banning tests of nuclear weapons. Since then, most international meetings held at Geneva have concerned the basic problems of the limitation of nuclear arms and provisions for international inspection and control. The UN Disarmament Commission, which began meeting in Geneva in 1960, has met there permanently since 1962. See disarmament, nuclear.

For other similar events, see Geneva Conference

The Geneva Conference (April 26 – July 21, 1954) was a conference between many countries that agreed to end hostilities and restore peace in French Indochina and Korea. It produced a set of treaties known as the Geneva Accords, signed on behalf of France by Pierre Mendès-France and of North Vietnam by Pham Van Dong.

Background

Main article: First Indochina War

After the defeat of the Japanese Empire in 1945, the Provisional Government of the French Republic restored colonial rule in French Indochina. Nationalist and communist popular movements in Vietnam led to the First Indochina War in 1946. This colonial war between the French Union's Expeditionary Corps and Ho Chi Minh's Viet Minh guerrillas turned into a Cold War crisis in January 1950.^[1] The communist Viet Minh received support from the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union, while France and the newly created Vietnamese National Army received support from the United States.

The Battle of Dien Bien Phu started in March 13 and pursued during the conference. Its issue became a strategic turnover as both sides wanted to emerge as the victor in order to benefit of a favorable position during the planned negotiations about "the Indochinese problem". Fighting for 57 days the besieged composite garrison made of European, Asian, African and North African was ordered to ceasefire on May 7th at 5:00 PM by the Hanoi based-French Chief of Staff.

This war was significant in that it demonstrated that a western colonial power could be defeated by an indigenous revolutionary force. The French having pacificated a similar uprising in the Madagascar colony in March 1947. Few months after the fall of Dien Bien Phu, the French troops were deployed in Algeria and a second guerrilla warfare based-independence war started in November 1954. Growing distrust and defiance among the army's Chief of Staff toward the Fourth French Republic after the contested defeats of the First Indochina War and the Suez Crisis led to two military coup d'état in March 1958 and April 1961. Most of the rebel Generals were Indochina veterans including their leader, Raoul Salan.

The Geneva Accords

On April 27, 1954, the Conference produced a declaration which supported the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Indochina thereby granting it independence from France. In addition, the Conference declaration agreed upon the cessation of hostilities and foreign involvement (or troops) in internal Indochina affairs. Northern and southern zones were drawn into which opposing troops were to withdraw, to facilitate the cessation of hostilities between the Vietnamese forces and those that had supported the French. The Viet Minh, having advanced to the far south while fighting the French, retreated from these positions to north of the ceasfire line, awaiting unification on the basis of internationally supervised free elections to be held in July 1956^[2]. Most of the French Union forces evacuated Vietnam, although much of the regional governmental infrastructure in the South was the same as it had been under the French administration. An International Control Commission was set up to oversee the implementation of the Geneva Accords, but it was basically powerless to ensure compliance. It was to consist of India, Canada, and Poland.

The agreement was between Cambodia, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, France, Laos, the People's Republic of China, the State of Vietnam, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom. The United States refused to participate in the conference or recognize the accords.

Post declaration events

Main articles: Operation Passage to Freedom and 1955 State of Vietnam referendum

Communist forces had been instrumental in the defeat of the French; the ideology of communism and nationalism were closely linked. Many viewed the South Vietnamese leadership as a French colonial, and later, an American puppet regime. Ho Chi Minh's Democratic Republic of Vietnam looked forward fairly comfortably to being elected in the forthcoming elections.

After the cessation of hostilities, a large migration took place. 450,000, mostly Catholics, moved to south of the Accords-mandated ceasefire line during Operation Passage to Freedom. The CIA attempted to further influence Catholic Vietnamese with slogans such as 'the Virgin Mary is moving South'. 52,000 went north. Communist supporters were urged to remain in the south to vote in the coming elections.^[3]

The U.S. replaced the French as a political backup for Ngo Dinh Diem, then President of the State of Vietnam, and he asserted his power in the south. A referendum rigged by his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu saw Diem gain 98% of the vote, with 133% in Saigon. American advisors had suggested that he win by a lesser margin since it was felt that he would be able to win any fair poll against Emperor Bao Dai. Diem refused to hold the national elections, noting that the State of Vietnam never signed the Geneva Accords and went about attempting to crush all remnant of communist opposition. The prospect of democratic elections dwindling away led South Vietnamese who opposed Diem to form the Communist National Liberation Front^{[citation needed]}, better known as the Vietcong, which eventually launched guerrilla attacks against the RVN government and desired the reunification of Vietnam under Communist rule. The Việt Cộng were supported by the Vietnam People's Army (VPA) of the North.

Both sides violated multiple provisions of the Accords, with both communists and anti-communists engaging in military buildups contrary to the accords.

Guerrilla activity in the South escalated, while U.S. military advisors continued to support the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, which was created as a replacement for the Vietnamese National Army. The result was the Second Indochina War, more commonly known as the Vietnam War.

Notes

See also

• Other Geneva Conferences
• Vietnam
• French Indochina War
• Vietnam War
• South Vietnam
• North Vietnam

External links

• Indochina - History links for French involvement in Indochina, casahistoria.net
• Vietnam - History links for US involvement in Indochina, casahistoria.net

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