Talk:The Two Vietnams after Geneva

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Revision as of 10:54, 4 December 2008 by imported>Sandy Harris (New page: I'd say the title of this page and the opening sentence reference to "a 1954 Geneva meeting that partitioned Vietnam into North and South" are debatable. The actual Geneva Accords [http:/...)
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I'd say the title of this page and the opening sentence reference to "a 1954 Geneva meeting that partitioned Vietnam into North and South" are debatable.

The actual Geneva Accords [1] consistently refer to a "provisional military demarcation line" and the final declaration [2] of the conference has the text "The Conference recognizes that the essential purpose of the Agreement relating to Viet-nam is to settle military questions with a view to ending hostilities and that the military demarcation line is provisional and should not in any way be interpreted as constituting a political or territorial boundary."

Dropping "two Vietnams" on top of that seems to me to be an anachronism. Granted, there was a French administration in the South, but that administration existed by virtue of Geneva and its tenure was limited by Geneva. It had Bao Dai as a puppet again, as he had been for the pre-war French Empire, Vichy France, and the Japanese. Of course, the US did not participate in or recognise the accords.