Geneva Agreements

Geneva Agreements (20 July 1954) The conclusion of the Geneva conference, convened on 7 May 1954 to negotiate peace settlements for war-torn Korea and French Indochina. It had been attended by the foreign ministers of France, Britain, the USA, the Soviet Union, and the People's Republic of China, together with representatives from Laos, Cambodia, North Vietnam, and South Vietnam. While no solution was found for Korea, all troops were to be withdrawn from Laos and Cambodia, where elections were to be held. In Vietnam a cease-fire line was to be drawn along the 17th Parallel; while this did not formally separate the country, it divided the country de facto into the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) under Ngo Dinh Diem in Saigon, and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) under Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi. As both countries claimed to represent the whole country, and strove for unification even by violent means, the agreements did not provide for a lasting peace. They did, however, provide a mechanism for the withdrawal of French colonial forces, to be replaced by an increasing number of US military advisers in the south.