First Indochina War

Negotiators at Geneva had hoped that the compromise peace would lead to a political solution in Vietnam and would prevent any future Cold War confrontation in the area. Many people in Vietnam and France undoubtedly welcomed the accords, for both countries had endured heavy losses in the conflict. The forces fighting for France lost at least 30,000 people, while Vietnam suffered hundreds of thousands of casualties. Unfortunately, the agreement was never fully implemented. The new government in the south, led by Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem, refused to hold national elections on the grounds that a free vote was impossible under the Communist government in the north. The United States encouraged this violation of the accords, supporting the development of an independent South Vietnam in order to resist the further spread of Communism in Southeast Asia.

The failure of the Geneva Accords to resolve the future of Vietnam set the stage for a Second Indochina War (also known as the Vietnam War), which proved to be even more destructive than the first. Deprived of its expectation that peace would lead to unification under Communist rule, the DRV began in 1959 to support dissident elements in South Vietnam. DRV leaders hoped that the conflict would topple the southern government in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) and bring about national unity on their terms. The war escalated when the United States dispatched combat troops to prevent a collapse of the Saigon regime in 1965, and North Vietnamese leaders countered by sending their own forces south to take part in the fighting. The Vietnam War lasted until 1975. The following year North and South Vietnam were reunified under a Communist government.