The 1954 Geneva settlement split Vietnam for a short time and planned elections for 1956, but the elections never happened.
France ruled Vietnam before 1954. Ho Chi Minh led the Viet Minh, a communist-led movement fighting for independence. In 1954, it defeated the French at Dien Bien Phu. The Geneva settlement of 1954 then ended France's war.
Opposing forces were to move north or south of a line near the 17th parallel, a line of latitude 17 degrees north of the equator. Ho's Democratic Republic of Vietnam ruled the North. The non-communist State of Vietnam ran the South. The final declaration proposed elections across the whole country in July 1956 to choose one government. The split was meant to be temporary.
The USA and the State of Vietnam did not accept the final declaration. Ngo Dinh Diem, the South's leader, refused to hold nationwide elections. He argued that voting could not be free in the communist North. The USA backed him. It feared a communist win, because the communists were strong and Ho was a famous independence leader. We cannot know for sure who would have won.
The elections never took place. Both sides still claimed the right to rule the whole country, and the planned peaceful route to reunification had failed.
- Dien Bien Phu, 1954
- Viet Minh defeat the French.
- 17th parallel
- Temporary line between North and South.
- July 1956
- Planned elections that never happened.
Worked example: A plan is not an event
A student writes: Vietnam was peacefully reunited by the 1956 election.
- Geneva planned elections for 1956.
- Diem refused to hold them, with US support.
- So there was no election and no peaceful reunification.
Watch out for this
Geneva created two permanent countries that both sides accepted.
The split was meant to be temporary. Both governments still claimed all of Vietnam.
Check your understanding
What happened to the elections planned for 1956?
- They never took place, because Diem refused and the USA backed him.
- They were held, and Ho Chi Minh won.
- They reunited Vietnam under the South.