US Policy and Intervention, 1954-64 » The Geneva Conference and the Domino Theory

The aims at Geneva

In May 1954 the French lost the battle of Dien Bien Phu. The next day, delegates meeting at Geneva in Switzerland began to discuss how to end the war in Indochina. Nine groups took part: France, Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the Vietminh (Ho Chi Minh's government in the north), the French-backed State of Vietnam led by Emperor Bao Dai, Laos and Cambodia. Each wanted something different.

Key terms:

• Ceasefire: an agreement to stop fighting.
• Demilitarised zone: a strip of land where no armed forces are allowed.
• Provisional: temporary, until something permanent is agreed.
• Communism: a system in which the state, led by one party, controls the economy; Ho Chi Minh was a Communist.

What was agreed

The talks ended on 20-21 July 1954. France and the Vietminh signed a ceasefire, and the main terms were:

• Vietnam was split into two zones along the 17th parallel, a line of latitude across the middle of the country. The Vietminh took the north and France the south.
• A demilitarised zone ran along the line. The split was provisional: the conference's Final Declaration said the line was not a political or territorial boundary.
• The Vietminh moved their forces north and the French and their allies moved south.
• For 300 days people could choose to move to the other zone. Hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese, many of them Catholics, moved from north to south.
• The conference's Final Declaration, which nobody signed, said elections to reunite Vietnam would be held in July 1956.
• A commission of Canada, Poland and India, called the International Control Commission, was to watch over the ceasefire and the elections.

The Vietminh had won the war but accepted only half the country. Ho Chi Minh agreed because of Soviet and Chinese pressure and because he expected to win the elections and take the south peacefully.

The US response and the Domino Theory

The United States did not sign the Geneva agreements. It said only that it would not use force to upset them. The State of Vietnam refused to accept the Final Declaration as well.

Key terms:

• Containment: the US policy of stopping Communism spreading to new countries.
• Domino Theory: the belief that if one country in a region became Communist, its neighbours would fall one after another, like a row of dominoes.

The American attitude came from the Cold War, the rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union. The US followed a policy of containment: stopping Communism spreading beyond the countries it already ruled. President Dwight Eisenhower explained his fear at a press conference on 7 April 1954, before Dien Bien Phu had fallen:

Eisenhower warned that if Indochina fell to Communism, other countries in Southeast Asia, such as Thailand, Burma and Indonesia, would follow. This is why the Americans thought a free South Vietnam mattered so much. Within weeks of the Geneva talks the US acted:

• In September 1954 it helped to set up the Southeast Asia Treaty Organisation (SEATO), an alliance with Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines and Thailand. A protocol to the treaty offered protection to South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, although they were not members.
• It began to send money, weapons and advisers to the south.

The formation of South Vietnam

In June 1954 Bao Dai made Ngo Dinh Diem his prime minister. Diem was a Catholic, a Vietnamese nationalist and a fierce opponent of Communism. He was not popular with everyone, but the Americans backed him as their best hope for the south. In October 1955 he held a referendum on whether Bao Dai should remain head of state. The result was heavily in Diem's favour, though it was widely seen as unfair. He removed Bao Dai and on 26 October 1955 proclaimed the Republic of Vietnam, with himself as president and its capital at Saigon. This is the country usually called South Vietnam.

Diem and the Americans refused to hold the 1956 elections. They said the north would not allow a free vote, and they feared that Ho would win. The country stayed divided. Life in the two Vietnams is covered in the next lesson.

Exam-style question

This is a Paper 2 Section A (a) question. Choose ONE of the alternatives.

Describe TWO features of EITHER the Geneva Agreements of 1954 OR the Domino Theory. [6 marks]

Recap

• At Geneva in 1954 France wanted out, the Vietminh wanted all of Vietnam, and the Soviets and Chinese urged compromise.
• Vietnam was temporarily divided at the 17th parallel, and elections were planned for July 1956. The US did not sign.
• Eisenhower's Domino Theory said that losing one country to Communism would topple its neighbours, so the US built SEATO and backed Diem.
• Diem made himself president of the new Republic of Vietnam in October 1955 and the 1956 elections were never held.