ABSTRACT
Dien Bien Phu was a humiliating defeat for France, coming on the heels of seven-plus years of fighting and constant promises by French generals that victory was just around the corner. Right up until the start of the Geneva Conference, the administration sought to stiffen the spine of the French, as when Dulles in July 1953 told the French foreign minister Georges Bidault, that no negotiations should be undertaken until the tide of battle had been turned. Vietminh forces were to be regrouped north of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and French troops south of it. Hanoi have been forced to withdraw its troops from southern Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, and to accept a division of the country, but overall it came out of Geneva in a strong position. When the Ngo Dinh Diem regime refused to hold consultations on elections for reunification, so the argument goes, Hanoi was absolved from any responsibility to abide by the terms of the agreement.
