rdfs:comment
| - Walter Bedell Smith, US representative at the Conference, read a statement on July 21, 1954, in which the US' willingness to abide by the terms of the agreements was implied, and it promised to "refrain from the threat or use of force to disturb" them. Specifically, the statement seemed to promise not only US acquiescence to the mandated elections, but aid in executing them.
|
abstract
| - Walter Bedell Smith, US representative at the Conference, read a statement on July 21, 1954, in which the US' willingness to abide by the terms of the agreements was implied, and it promised to "refrain from the threat or use of force to disturb" them. Specifically, the statement seemed to promise not only US acquiescence to the mandated elections, but aid in executing them. Black propaganda operations by the CIA commenced within ten days of Smith's announcement; the leaflets dropped on Hanoi were so convincing, that Vietminh denouncements of them were believed by even the Communist party faithful to be French trickery. Registration by Vietnamese wanting to go south to French territory increased threefold, and Vietminh currency halved in value, within days of the leaflet drop. Aspects of the Conference that have been the subject of controversy include whether it constituted a partition of Viet Nam, the transfer of responsibility for abiding by the agreement from the French representative for Viet Nam, Bảo Đại, to his largely self-appointed (and US-backed) successor Ngo Dinh Diem, and similarly, the extent of US responsibility for abiding by an agreement it did not sign.
|