Word: nam
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...susceptibility made it seem easy. Alarmed at Eden's threat to break off the talks, and worried when Churchill announced his trip, Chou met urgently with Eden. While committing himself to nothing, Chou hinted that the Communists might be willing to consider Laos and Cambodia separately from Viet Nam, and he rephrased some of his proposals to suggest that the Communists might withdraw some Viet Minh forces from those states. Eden promptly changed his plans for breaking off the conference...
Next day, the French Assembly installed a Premier pledged to get peace at Geneva within 30 days. Mendès-France's reported terms-abandonment of Northern Viet Nam and the Red River Delta, in return for a neutralized Laos and Cambodia-exactly accorded with the bargain Britain had long privately advocated. Eden put off his departure to confer through Saturday afternoon with Molotov, Chou and France's Jean Chauvel, hammering out an agreement that representatives of "the two sides" would meet immediately in Geneva or "on the spot" to discuss "the withdrawal of all foreign armed forces...
...hour for Viet Nam was late. "His mission is a pathetic one," Diem's chief of staff admitted. "Everyone thinks the cause is lost." But if there could be a rallying, Diem had unusual assets: the Asian fame of an ascetic, the ardor of an incorruptible nationalist, a record of stubborn noncollaboration with the Communists and the French...
...refusal or evasion of negotiations" with the Viet Minh itself, taunted him with the cost to France in men and money of a "colonial war." He charged that the Bao Dai government had no popular support. He claimed that the Communists already controlled three-quarters of Viet Nam, half of Laos, a smaller but increasing part of Cambodia. As for Dienbienphu, "Who can deny that the defense of Dienbienphu was in the main carried out not by the French and the Vietnamese but by all kinds of foreigners gathered there...
...were "not couched in decent fashion." Retorted Molotov: "I don't think anyone can attack facts, even though they are bitter facts." Dead Hopes. The bitter facts were that Molotov had killed all hope that the Communists would settle for a cease-fire or a partition of Viet Nam alone. Molotov was demanding all of Indo-China-and on the Communists' own terms. Next day China's Chou En-lai echoed Molotov's every word, rejected the West's plea for an impartial commission of Southeast Asia neutrals, insisted, like Molotov, on settling political issues...