America gets involved



In April 1954, shortly before the French surrender at Dien Bien Phu, theforeign ministers of North and South Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, China, the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain and France met in Geneva, Switzerland to try to reach a peaceful solution to the problems of Korea and French Indo-China. The Geneva Accords, as they were known, were of great importance. They set the scene for the Vietnam War and speeded up American involvement.


The Geneva Accords

  • There was to be a cease-fire.
  • Vietnam would be divided at the 17th parallel of lattitude.
  • North Vietnam would be communist and ruled by Ho Chi Minh.
  • South Vietnam would be ruled by Ngo Dinh Diem, a strong opponent of communism.
  • French troops would leave Vietnam.
  • The Vietminh would leave South Vietnam. Each side had 300 days to withdraw troops.
  • The Vietnamese people could choose to live in the North or the South.
  • By July 1956, a general election would be held throughout Vietnam for the people to decide the future of the country.

    Although some of his supporters were angry that Vietnam was still not a united, communist country after the defeat of the French, Ho Chi Minh was not worried. He knew that in the free elections, the communists would win. Most of the Vietnamese were poor peasants who believed that their lives could only be improved if the communists took power and gave them land. In the USA, President Eisenhower had reached the same conclusion, and suggested that if free elections were to be held, as many as 80% of the Vietnamese would vote communist. He therefore decided that the USA must make sure that those elections never took place. The Americans believed that, if Vietnam fell to communism, then Laos, Cambodia and Thailand would immediately be threatened.

    In 1953 Eisenhower became President. He realised that the American people would not support sending troops to Vietnam, particularly since more than 50,000 US soldiers had recently been killed fighting in Korea. Instead, he sent in a small group of 'advisers' under Colonel Edward Lansdale, whose task was to use advertising, propaganda and American dollars to pursuade the South Vietnamese people not to support the communists in the forthcoming elections. Instead, they should vote for Ngo Dinh Diem as president - the man backed by the Americans.


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