On July 20, 1954, the Geneva Accords on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Indochina was signed. This is regarded as a great victory of our revolution which made the French Government to commit to respect the independence, sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity of Vietnam.

Representatives of Vietnam and France signed the Accords (File photo)

1. The Position of the Winner

After a long tense confrontation in the Korean War, the major powers represented for the two blocs began negotiating, inspiring to settle conflicts and wars by peaceful negotiations. On January 25, 1954, the Foreign Ministers Meeting of the Soviet Union, the United States, Britain and France agreed to call a wider international Conference to discuss a settlement to the recent Korean War and the restoring peace in Indochina. However, due to the incompletion of the Dien Bien Phu battle, the French still nurtured a dream of winning a military victory, creating a strong force to easily negotiate, look for a way out of the marsh of the Indochinese War. Henceforth, the French troops were in critical situation though, Western countries did not accept the representatives of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam to the Conference, which was the decisive factor of the peace in Indochina. Only when the Vietnam People’s Army did launch the final assault on Dien Bien Phu and in beyond saving situation, on 2^nd May, 1954, France, the United States and Britain hurriedly accepted the official presence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam to the Conference. This showed that our military and people’s great victory of Dien Bien Phu was the decisive factor to bring the Democratic Republic of Vietnam’s delegation to the Conference to directly negotiate with the French instead of the puppet government of Vietnam as in the British, French and the US intention. On 8^th May 1954, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam’s delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister Pham Van Dong came to the Conference with the position of the representative of a victory nation. French Foreign Minister Georges Bidault who led the French delegation to the Conference, informed the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu and proposed in principle a total cessation of hostilities in Indochina.

2. Peace, independence, sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity for the three Indochinese countries

After 75 days of tense intellectual contest between the two sides, with 31 sessions, including 7 plenary sessions and 24 sessions of the heads of delegations, on 21^st July, 1954, the main documents of the Geneva Conference on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Indochina were signed. Though the outcome of the Geneva Accords did not reflect sufficiently our people’s victories in the battlefields and our delegation’s requests, the Accords made critical contribution to end the French aggressive war in Indochina. The French Government had to recognize the independence, sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity of the three Indochinese countries, including Vietnam, which can be manifested in some basic contents:

- The members of the Conference committed to respect the fundamental national rights of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia which were independence, sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity; commit not to intervene into the three countries’ internal affairs.

- Ending hostilities in Vietnam and the whole Indochina at the same time, restoring peace in Indochina

- Implementing the reorganization, and moving of troops according to the regulation of zones and time. In Vietnam, the 17th parallel (Ben Hai River, Vinh Linh District, Quang Tri Province) was used as a provisional military demarcation line with a demilitarized zone along both sides of the line. The Vietnam People’s Army regrouped to the north and the forces of the French Union to the south of the 17^th parallel; the period within which the movement of all the forces of either party would not exceed three hundred (300) days. In Laos, resistance forces regrouped in Sam Nua and Phongsaly provinces. In Cambodia, resistance forces demobilized on the spot. The 17^th parallel in Vietnam was a provisional military demarcation line only and was not a border line in terms of politics and territory. French forces had to complete the withdrawal from Vietnam and Vietnamese people would conduct general elections which would bring about the unification of Vietnam.

- The introduction into Indochina of any reinforcements in the form of personnel and weapons was prohibited. Indochinese countries were not permitted to join any military allies and did not allow other countries use their territories for war or aggressive actions.

- No discriminations, no revenge of the people who work for either side during the war.

- The responsibility for implementing the Geneva Accords belongs to the signatories and their successors.

This is a great victory of the three Indochinese countries and a critical international legal foundation for our people to continue the struggle, consolidate peace, aimed at gaining unification, independence and democracy in the whole country. It should also be noted that though peaceful negotiations in Geneva Conference were mainly conducted by the Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the French Government, they were still impacted by the arrangements and compromise of major powers. Henceforth, the withdrawal of all French troops from Vietnam by the request of the Accords was also a critical victory. Along with Dien Bien Phu victory, the Geneva Accords was to end a long and brave resistance war against the French aggressors; liberate the whole of the North and create favorable condition to build the North become a robust rear for the struggle to unify the country. This is the first time in the history, an international conference, with the participation of major powers, recognized the fundamental national rights of Vietnam. If in the 1946 Franco-Vietnam Preliminary Agreement, France only recognized Vietnam as a free state belonging to the French Union, at this Conference, due to our resolute struggle, France had to recognize Vietnam as an independent state having its sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity. This created a legal foundation for our people to continue the struggle for an entirely independent and unified Vietnam.

Thus, with the sound and creative revolutionary guideline, particularly the tied combination of military and diplomatic struggle, we did gain great victory. The diplomatic struggle at the Geneva Conference had left precious lessons, including: the lesson of bringing into full play the spirit of independence and self-reliance in diplomatic negotiations; the lesson of combining comprehensive strength of political-military-diplomatic struggle, utilize the victory in the battlefield to create strong force at the Conference table; the lesson of resolute and intransigent struggle against the enemy’s irrational requests, etc. Those lessons had not only been used successfully in Paris Conference (1973), but also showed their high practical values in the cause of building and safeguarding the Fatherland at present.

By Doctor Nguyen Binh

Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics