Word: nam
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...would probably be worked out well in advance of the conference. In general, the treaty, as the U.S. would like to have it, would guarantee a united regional defense against further Communist penetration of Southeast Asia. Its guarantees would probably include the protection of Laos, Cambodia and South Viet Nam, although these countries, with their freedom restricted by the Geneva agreement, might not be able to join SEATO. Probable signatories: the U.S., Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, the Philippines, possibly Burma and Ceylon. Likely conference site: Baguio, the Philippines' mountainside summer capital. Probable date of the conference: early...
...third was Albert Sarraut, an oldtime French empire builder who had been governor of Indo-China in lordlier days when there were no such irritants as the Viet Minh. Each had a red pencil in his hand. Beneath their hands the map was slashed with red lines, until Viet Nam began to look like a body crisscrossed with bloody welts. On the lawn outside, a dog howled at the moon...
...conferees were stunned. Viet Nam's Foreign Minister Tran Van Do had announced from time to time that he would never accept partition. But Cambodia had scarcely been heard from. Its delegation had arrived late, made little stir, and had figured little in negotiations, since it had not even been invaded by the Viet Minh as had Laos...
Anticlimax. Exhausted, Mendès went to bed. A few minutes later, at 2:42 a.m., the cease-fire agreements for Laos and Viet Nam were signed by second-tier officials in a small room off the main council chamber in the Palais des Nations. The ceremony, watched only by a handful of photographers and minor officials, took just 7½ minutes. Ten hours later, the gallant Cambodians signed the revised agreement that may some day make the difference between freedom and Communist slavery for them and for Laos...
Only Viet Nam's Tran Van Do spoiled the friendly atmosphere. While negotiators and officials celebrated with wine and fine food, he scrawled out a statement: "I tender my resignation ..." Nobody paid any attention to the man who had stood helplessly by while 12 million of his countrymen were passed over into Communist slavery. "Reason and peace have triumphed!" cried Mendès-France...