Download Geneva Accords

Name __________________________________________________________
Date ___________
Per. _____
THE GENEVA ACCORDS
Directions: Complete the reading and answer the questions that follows.
On the same day the red flag of the Viet Minh went up over the former French command bunker at Dien
Bien Phu, delegates from the nine nations involved in the wars in Asia assembled in Geneva, Switzerland. Their
task was to find permanent peace settlements for both Korea and Vietnam. No settlement was found to the Korean
situation. The truce there continued, as it does today, with the country divided. As for Vietnam, the conference did
worse, creating new problems.
The Geneva Conference was held under clouds of mistrust. The heads of the French and Viet Minh
delegations refused to speak with one another. The Viet Minh were deeply suspicious of the motives of the Chinese.
John Foster Dulles, the American Secretary of State, made headlines by pointedly refusing even to shake the hand of
China’s delegate Zhou Enlai.
In this atmosphere, two key decisions were made. The first was a cease-fire agreement between the French
and the Viet Minh. In order to separate the two sides, a partition line was drawn at the Seventeenth Parallel, roughly
dividing Vietnam in half. The French forces were to be regrouped south of the line, while the Viet Minh were to
assemble in the north. The U.S. did much to encourage and assist migration to the south.
Partition was seen by the delegates as a temporary measure designed to halt the fighting by separating the
two sides. Elections to unify Vietnam would follow. After much haggling, France and the Viet Minh agreed that in
July of 1956, free general elections would be held by secret ballot, under international supervision. The purpose of
the elections was to choose a government for Vietnam as a whole. The United States and South Vietnam did not
actually sign this agreement, however the U.S. observer in attendance read a statement in which the U.S. endorsed
the principle of free elections and pledged not to interfere in its implementation.
As both sides began withdrawing their forces north and south of the partition lines the election question
loomed large in the future. As a participant at Geneva, the United States found itself in a dilemma. In principle, the
United States, as the world’s leading democracy, favored free elections. Nevertheless, the best intelligence showed
that Ho Chi Minh was the strong favorite to win the presidency of a unified Vietnam. A CIA intelligence estimate
on August 3rd, 1954, stated that “if the scheduled national elections are held in July, 1956, and if the Viet Minh does
not prejudice its political prospects, the Viet Minh will almost surely win.”
The Joint Chiefs of Staff, in a memorandum on March 12 th, 1954, to the Secretary of Defense, had reached
the same conclusion. “Current intelligence leads the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the belief,” they wrote, “that a
settlement based upon free election would [result] in the almost certain loss of the Associated States [South
Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia] to communist control.” President Eisenhower was advised that Ho’s share of the vote
could be as much as 80 percent.
What were the two main agreements reached at Geneva?
If you were President Eisenhower and intelligence estimates showed that the Viet Minh were likely to win free
elections in Vietnam, what would you do? Would you encourage the elections to go forward, or would you try to
halt them? What part did the 5 Ps play in your decision?