HIST 173 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Hubert Humphrey, Arms Control, Eugene Mccarthy
Document Summary
This was particularly problematic in the developing world, where the. Us was compelled to adopt increasingly conservative policies. Vietnam was a french colony where an anti-colonial movement for national independence, the vietminh, emerged after the first world war. Vietminh appealed to the us for their nation to be granted self-determination. But americans reluctantly let france hold on to vietnam, in part because the. Vietminh were led by the vietnamese cp and us officials feared they would dominate any new government. This led to the outbreak of war between french and vietminh. The french lost, and at geneva peace conference in 1954 arrangements were made for temporary partition of vietnam. The nation would be reunited through general elections in 1956. This was not an attractive scenario for some vietnamese and their american supporters. There was little doubt that the vietminh would handily win any elections, and this would bring the vcp into a new government.
