Word: viets
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...South: At 3 a.m. on July 22, Geneva's decision reached into Saigon's palm-shaded Palais Gialong, 400 miles south of the 17th parallel. A light burned in a first-floor office. Disillusioned and sleepless, Viet Nam's Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem opened the cablegram from Geneva and read...
...FOUGHT DESPERATELY AGAINST PARTITION AND FOR A NEUTRAL ZONE IN THE CATHOLIC AREA OF NORTH VIET NAM. ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE TO SURMOUNT THE HOSTILITY OF OUR ENEMIES AND THE PERFIDY OF FALSE FRIENDS. UNUSUAL PROCEDURES PARALYZED THE ACTION OF OUR DELEGATION . . . ALL ARRANGEMENTS WERE SIGNED IN PRIVACY. WE EXPRESS OUR DEEPEST SORROWS IN THIS TOTAL FAILURE OF OUR MISSION. WE RESPECTFULLY SUBMIT OUR RESIGNATION...
...TRAN VAN DO, FOREIGN MINISTER OF VIET...
...Diem could not gain his time easily. "Monsieur l'Ambassadeur," he told U.S. Ambassador Donald Heath, "our problems are immeasurable. We must consolidate our administration; we must detect Communist spies left behind by the Viet Minh. We have maybe one million people to evacuate from the North, 50,000 from Central Viet Nam, and 40,000 loyal tribesmen from the frontiers. We have to find all these people land, medical care, food, work and a place to live. We need help...
Despite the fine promises of Pierre Mendès-France, Diem was also half strangled by the albatross of French colonialism: if he asked the French army to withdraw, it would take about 80% of Viet Nam's military equipment in its train; if he asked the French army to stay, the Communists might easily convince the Vietnamese that Diem's new independence was a myth...