To set aside any idea that the division was permanent, a final declaration not recorded in Article 6 states that "the Conference recognizes that the essential objective of the Agreement concerning Vietnam is to resolve military matters with a view to ending hostilities, and that the military demarcation line is provisional and should in no way be interpreted as a political or territorial border". [21] The new French Prime Minister, Pierre Mendes-France, had set a deadline for an agreement that was finally signed early in the morning. The Geneva Conference, which was to settle the outstanding issues of the Korean War and the First Indochina War, was a multi-nation conference held in Geneva, Switzerland, from April 26 to July 20, 1954. [1] [2] [3] The part of the conference on Korea ended without the adoption of declarations or proposals and is therefore generally considered less relevant. However, the Geneva Accords, which dealt with the dismantling of French Indochina, proved to be long-lasting effects. The disintegration of the French Empire in Southeast Asia led to the formation of the states of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (northern Vietnam), the State of Vietnam (the future Republic of Vietnam, southern Vietnam), the Kingdom of Cambodia and Laos. While delegates met in Geneva from the end of April, discussions on Indochina did not begin until 8 May 1954. The Viet Minh had won the day before at Dien Bien Phu their decisive victory over the French Union forces. [5:549 The ceasefire signed at the end of the Korean War required a political conference within three months – a timetable that was not respected – "to resolve the issues of the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Korea, the peaceful solution to the Korean question, etc." [6] The Eisenhower government had considered airstrikes to support the French in Dien Bien Phu, but was unable to secure a commitment to joint action from important allies like the United Kingdom. Eisenhower was cautious to be drawn into "another Korea" that would be deeply unpopular with the American public. == Domestic political considerations strongly influenced the country`s position in Geneva. [5]:551-3 Columnist Walter Lippmann wrote on April 29, that "the American position in Geneva is impossible as long as the leading Republican senators have no conditions of peace other than the unconditional surrender of the enemy and no conditions of entry into war, except as a collective action in which no one wants to participate. [5]:554 At the time of the conference, the United States did not recognize the People`s Republic of China.

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