ABSTRACT
The Geneva Conference of 1954, which was held to negotiate a settlement of the Indochina conflict, involved five major powers: the United States, the Soviet Union, China, France, and Great Britain. In April 1954, an international conference assembled in Geneva, Switzerland, to resolve the conflict in Indochina. The large number of officers in Indochina, coupled with the high casualty rate, put severe limits on the number and quality of troops France was able to make available for European defense. In hope of regaining the military initiative in the war, the French had adopted a new strategy in 1953, the Navarre Plan, named after General Henri Navarre, commander of French forces in Indochina. Mendes-France informed the National Assembly on July 7 that if no satisfactory settlement could be reached at Geneva, he would, before resigning, submit to the assembly a bill providing for the dispatch of conscript troops to fight in Indochina.
