Transcript DienbienPhu and the Geneva Accords

Dien Bien Phu and
the Geneva Accords
The end of French Colonialism in Vietnam
Source: The NW Travel Magazine
The Battle of Dienbienphu

The final battle between the French forces
and the North Viet Minh Communist
revolutionary forces.

The French defeat led to the International
Agreement called the Geneva Accords
What Happened?

On March 13th, 1954, as both sides ostensibly
readied for peace talks, the French selected Dien
Bien Phu, a village in northwestern Vietnam, near
the Chinese and Laotian borders, as the place for
a showdown with the Viet Minh.

The French built a large airstrip with fortifications,
called firebases.

Troops numbered between 13,000 and 16,000.
What Happened?

During the buildup, the Viet Minh had managed to
transport scores of anti-aircraft guns and mortars
through heavily-forested terrain previously
dismissed by the French as “impassable.”

From March 13, the Viet Minh conducted a fullscale attack on the French gaining ground in the
10-mile-long, six-mile-wide river valley.

Firebases were overrun, and a constant shelling
of the French ensued.
What Happened?

Viet Minh forces destroyed the airstrip

forced resupply planes to land in areas controlled by the Viet
Minh.

The French lost access to food, ammunition, and vital
intelligence

Compounding the difficulties for the French were the
monsoon rains pelting the area, conditions became
intolerable and forced a surrender.
The Geneva Conference

conference between many countries that
agreed to end hostilities and restore
peace in French Indochina and Vietnam.

produced a set of treaties known as the
Geneva Accords
The Geneva Accords

On April 27, 1954, the agreement supported the
territorial integrity and sovereignty of
Indochina thereby granting it independence from
France

Northern and southern zones were divided at the
17th parallel and opposing troops were to
withdraw
The Vietnamese Shuffle

After the cessation of hostilities, a large migration
took place. 450,000, mostly Catholics, moved
to the south

52,000 people went north. Communist
supporters were urged to remain in the south to
vote in the coming elections
The Divide between North and South

The Viet Minh, awaited unification on the basis of
internationally supervised free elections to be
held in July 1956

The U.S. replaced the French with Ngo Dinh
Diem, leader of South Vietnam

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.
Results of Diem’s Decisions

The absence of elections led South Vietnamese who
opposed Diem to form the Communist National Liberation
Front, better known as the Vietcong

They engaged in guerrilla attacks against Diem’s government
and desired the reunification of Vietnam under
Communist rule

Both sides violated multiple provisions of the Accords, with
both communists and anti-communists engaging in military
buildups contrary to the accords