The distant origins of the Vietnam War lie in the
nineteenth-century colonisation of Indochina (Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam) by
France. French rule lasted until 1940 when the Japanese, embarking on a series
of conquests in Southeast Asia and eventually war against Western powers,
occupied Vietnam. Japan's defeat in 1945 saw France seeking to regain control
of her erstwhile colonies. Establishing the state of Vietnam, France installed
the former emperor, Bao Dai, as head of state. For many Vietnamese, however,
the end of the Japanese occupation meant the chance for independence, duly
proclaimed by Ho Chi Minh, leader of Vietnam's Communist Party, in September
1945.
France refused to accept the declaration, and eight years of
war followed, ending with the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. The peace
settlement, known as the Geneva Accords, divided the country; the North under
the communist Ho Chi Minh, and the South under President Ngo Dinh Diem who had
deposed Bao Dai and proclaimed the Republic of Vietnam in October 1955.
The Geneva Accords mandated that a Vietnam-wide election,
aimed at reunifying the divided country, be held in 1956. Diem claimed that the
people of the North could not vote freely, and with the backing of the United
States, he refused to participate. Relations between the two Vietnams grew
increasingly tense and in 1960 the North, aiming to overthrow Diem and reunite
the country under communist rule, proclaimed the National Front for the
Liberation of South Vietnam.
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