…wars are often called the French Indochina War and the Vietnam War (q.v.), or the First and Second Indochina wars. The latter conflict ended in April 1975.

…a political settlement to the First Indochina War (the Geneva Accords). That decision prevented the Viet Minh from gaining any regional power in Cambodia, as they did in Laos.

…1946, and a bloody eight-year war followed. In the end, the financial and psychological strain proved too great for France to bear, and, after the capture of the French stronghold of Dien Bien Phu in 1954 by the Vietnamese, the French sought a face-saving solution. A conference of interested powers…

…collection of documents relating to Indochina and issuing from the Geneva Conference of April 26–July 21, 1954, attended by representatives of Cambodia, the People’s Republic of China, France, Laos, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union, the Viet Minh (i.e., the North

…in Geneva brought the First Indochina War to an end.

Negotiations between the French and Ho Chi Minh led to an agreement in March 1946 that appeared to promise a peaceful solution. Under the agreement France would recognize the Viet Minh government and give Vietnam the status of a free state within the…

The French Indochina War broke out in 1946 and went on for eight years, with France’s war effort largely funded and supplied by the United States. Finally, with their shattering defeat by the Viet Minh at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in May 1954, the…

…the American role in the Indochina crisis between France and the guerrillas led by Ho Chi Minh to pushing for a partition of Vietnam into a communist North and a noncommunist South and to providing financial and military aid to the latter.

…roughly 30,000 troops during the French Indochina War (1946–54; see Indochina wars). That war witnessed the birth of parachute battalions, one of which eventually became the 1st Foreign Parachute Regiment (1^er Régiment étranger de parachutistes; 1^er REP). In the Mekong delta the Foreign Cavalry Regiment adapted commercial tracked vehicles called…

The agreement was unsatisfactory to extremists on both sides, and Ho Chi Minh went to France for a series of conferences (June to September 1946) and concluded a second agreement with the French government. But the peace was broken by an incident at…

…French commander of the First Indochina War (1946–54).

…on economics, the war in Indochina, and North Africa. After the French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu by the Viet Minh in May 1954, he became premier on the pledge that he would end France’s involvement in Indochina within 30 days. His promise was fulfilled at the revitalized Geneva…

…of Haiphong, and the first Indochina War began. The Viet Minh had popular support and was able to dominate the countryside, while the French strength lay in urban areas. As the war neared an end, the Viet Minh was succeeded by a new organization, the Lien Viet, or Vietnamese National…

In the French Indochina War, Giap’s brilliance as a military strategist and tactician led to his winning the decisive Battle of Dien Bien Phu on May 7, 1954, which brought the French colonialist regime to an end.