41. “Chi thi cua Ban Bi thu, ngay 5 thang 9 nam 1954: Ve viec dau tranh chong Phap va bon Ngo Dinh Diem du do va bat ep mot so dong bao ta vao mien Nam [Secretariat Instruction, 5 September 1954: On the Matter of Struggling against the Enticement of and Pressures on Some of Our Compatriots in the South by the French and Ngo Ding Diem],” in VKD: 1954, 263–70.
42. “Situation en Indochine [Situation in Indochina],” 30 November 1954, #157, AO: 1944–1955, ADF, 5.
43. French General Commission, Saigon, to MFA, 12 January 1955, Bôite 6, D:I, AIPMF, 7.
44. BCGH to FO, 27 January 1955, FO 371/117099, NAUK, 1.
45. Peter Hansen, “Bac Di Cu: Catholic Refugees from the North of Vietnam and Their Role in the Southern Republic, 1954–1959,” Journal of Vietnamese Studies 4, no. 3 (Fall 2009): 173–211; Tran Thi Lien, “Les catholiques vietnamiens dans la République du Viêtnam (1954–1963)” [Vietnamese Catholics in the Republic of Vietnam (1954–1963)], in Pierre Brocheux, ed., Du conflict d’Indochine aux conflits indochinois [From the Indochina Conflict to the Indochinese Conflicts] (Paris: Éditions Complexe, 2000), 53–80; Anthony James Joes, The War for South Vietnam, 1954–1975 (Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2001), 36.
46. Seth Jacobs, America’s Miracle Man in Vietnam: Ngo Dinh Diem, Religion, Race, and U.S. Intervention in Southeast Asia (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2004), 131.
47. Canadian Delegation to the ICSC in Vietnam, Hanoi, to Secretary of State, Department of External Affairs, Ottawa, 4 July 1955, 6.
48. “Note de Mendès France à Guy La Chambre” [Note from Mendès France to Guy La Chambre], 4 January 1955, Bôite 5, D:I, AIPMF, 3.
49. Pierre Journoud, De Gaulle et le Vietnam, 1945–1969: La réconciliation [De Gaulle and Vietnam, 1945–1969: The Reconciliation] (Paris: Tallandier, 2011), 65.
50. “Note de Mendès France à Guy La Chambre,” 4 January 1955, 3; “Conversations Franco-Anglo-Américaines (compte rendu),” 23 October 1954, 209.
51. On Hinh, see Arthur J. Dommen, The Indochinese Experience of the French and the Americans: Nationalism and Communism in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001), 271–72. Paris itself acknowledged that Hinh and other military commanders in the South “each played their own game and refused to recognize Diem’s authority.” See “Conversations Franco-Anglo-Américaines (compte rendu),” 23 October 1954, 208.
52. “Dien cua Ban Bi thu, ngay 6 thang 10 nam 1954: Ve nhan dinh tinh hinh va chu truong cong tac moi” [Secretariat Cable, 6 October 1954: On Evaluation of the Situation and Policies Relating to New Responsibilities], in VKD: 1954, 328–29; Trung tam Khoa hoc xa hoi va nhan van quoc gia—Vien su hoc, Lich su Viet Nam, 179; Dang Cong san Viet Nam, Nhung su kien lich su Dang, Tap III [Party Historical Events, Volume 3] (Hanoi: Nha xuat ban Thong tin ly luan, 1985), 12–13.
53. Logevall, Embers of War, 626.
54. “Vietnam: Chronology,” 2.
55. “Note du Ministère des Affaires Étrangères: a/s application des accords sur la cessation des hostilités,” 7; “Dien cua Ban Bi thu, ngay 6 thang 10 nam 1954,” 327–28.
56. “Vietnam: Annual Review for 1955,” 23 January 1956, FO 371/123388, NAUK, 2.
57. Vien Lich su Dang—Hoi dong bien soan lich su Nam Trung bo khang chien, Nam Trung bo khang chien, 1945–1975 [The Resistance in Southern Trung Bo, 1945–1975] (Hanoi: Tong cong ty phat hanh sach Lien ket xuat ban, 1992), 235–36.
58. Vo Chi Cong, Tren nhung chang duong cach mang [On the Revolutionary Paths] (Hanoi: Nha xuat ban Chinh tri quoc gia, 2001), 148–52.
59. “Quyet nghi cua Lien Khu uy IV, ngay 26 thang 9 nam 1954: Ve cong tac o Thua Thien va Quang Tri (Thi hanh Chi thi cua Bo Chinh tri ve tinh hinh moi va nhiem vu cong tac moi cua mien Nam)” [Resolution of the Interzone IV Executive Committee, 26 September 1954: On the Tasks in Thua Thien and Quang Tri (Implementing the Politburo Instruction on the New Situation and New Tasks and Responsibilities of the South)], in VKD: 1954, 560–62; Vien Lich su Dang—Hoi dong bien soan lich su Nam Trung bo khang chien, Nam Trung bo khang chien, 227–29.
60. “Nghi quyet Hoi nghi Lien Khu uy V, tu ngay 18 den 21 thang 10 nam 1954 [Resolution of the Interzone V Executive Committee Conference, 18–21 October 1954],” in VKD: 1954, 577–607.
61. Vo Chi Cong, Tren nhung chang duong, 163–65.
62. “Chi thi cua Ban Chap hanh Trung uong, ngay 17 thang 12 nam 1954: Tuyen truyen van dong day manh dau tranh chong de quoc My can thiep vao Dong Duong va pha hoai Hiep dinh dinh chien” [Central Committee Instruction, 17 December 1954: Propaganda Activity to Strengthen the Struggle against American Intervention in Indochina and Sabotaging of the Cease-fire Agreement], in VKD: 1954, 409–19.
63. “Tinh hinh hien tai va nhiem vu truoc mat: Bao cao cua dong chi Truong Chinh o Hoi nghi Trung uong lan thu bay mo rong (tu 3 den 12–3-1955)” [Current Situation and Responsibilities before Us: Report of Comrade Truong Chinh at the Seventh Enlarged Plenum (3–12 March 1955)], in Dang Cong san Viet Nam, Van kien Dang—Toan tap, Tap 16: 1955 [Party Documents—Complete Series, Vol. 16: 1955] (Hanoi: Nha xuat ban Chinh tri quoc gia, 2002) [hereafter VKD: 1955], 116.
64. On the challenges of the party in southern Vietnam during the Indochina War, see Christopher E. Goscha, Vietnam: Un état né de la guerre, 1945–1954 [Vietnam: A State Born from War] (Paris: Armand Colin, 2011).
65. “Tinh hinh hien tai va nhiem vu truoc mat,” 129, 135.
66. BCGH to FO, 19 January 1955, FO 371/117099, NAUK, 3.
67. “Loi khai mac cua Ho Chu tich, ngay 3 thang 3 nam 1955, tai Hoi nghi lan thu bay mo rong Ban Chap hanh Trung uong Dang Lao dong Viet Nam (khoa II)” [Opening Address of President Ho, 3 March 1955, at the Seventh Enlarged Plenum of the Second Central Committee of the Vietnamese Workers’ Party], in VKD: 1955, 93.
68. Logevall, Embers of War, 620.
69. BCGH to FO, 4 April 1955, FO 371/117100, NAUK, 2; Logevall, Embers of War, 631–32.
70. Benedict J. Tria Kerkvliet, The Power of Everyday Politics: How Vietnamese Peasants Transformed National Policy (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2005), 38.
71. BCGH to FO, 15 February 1955, FO 371/1171099, NAUK, 1.
72. BCGH to FO, 3 May 1955, FO 371/117100, NAUK, 2; FDH to MFA, 28 April 1955, #167, AO: 1944–1955, ADF, 1.
73. BCGH to FO, 1 July 1955, FO 371/117100, NAUK, 1.
74. Quoted in BCGH to FO, 24 June 1955, FO 371/117222, NAUK, 1.
75. French General Commission, Saigon to MFA, 22 January 1955, Bôite 7, D:I, AIPMF, 5.
76. C. Cheysson letter, 9 January 1955, Bôite 6, D:I, AIPMF, 2.
77. “Bao cao cua dong chi Truong Chinh tai Hoi nghi Trung uong lan thu tam, hop tu ngay 13 den 20–8-1955, doan ket nhan dan toan quoc dau tranh de thuc hien thong nhat Viet Nam tren co so doc lap va dan chu” [Report of Comrade Truong Chinh at the Eighth Central Committee Plenum, 13–20 August 1955, on Uniting the People of the Entire Country to Struggle for Achieving Vietnamese Unification Independently and Democratically], in VKD: 1955, 485.
78. “Chi thi cua Trung uong, so 14-CT/TW, ngay 16 thang 4 nam 1955, ve van de tiep tuc pha am muu gay phi cua de quoc” [Resolution of the Center, no. 14-CT/TW, 16 April 1955, on the Issue of Continuing to Defeat the Provocations of the Imperialists], in VKD: 1955, 260.
79. “Nghi quyet cua Hoi nghi Trung uong lan thu bay mo rong, hop tu ngay 3 den ngay 12–3-1955” [Resolution of the Seventh Enlarged Central Committee Plenum, Meeting 3–12 March 1955], in VKD: 1955, 207.
80. Ho Chi Minh, Toan Tap, Tap VI [Collected Works, Vol. 6] (Hanoi: Nha xuat ban Su that, 1986), 589; Ang Cheng Guan, Vietnamese Communists’ Relations with China and the Second Indochina Conflict, 1956–1962 (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1997), 13.
81. “Ket luan cuoc thao luan o Hoi nghi trung uong lan thu bay (Hop tu ngay 3 den ngay 12–3-1955)” [Closing Remarks at the Seventh Central Committee Plenum (Meeting 3–12 March 1955)], in VKD: 1955, 177.
82. American Imperialism’s Intervention in Vietnam (Hanoi: Foreign
Languages Publishing House, 1955), 17–18.
83. “President Eisenhower to the President of the Council of Ministers of Vietnam (Ngo Dinh Diem),” undated [transmitted 24 October 1954], in United States Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954: Volume 13, Indochina (in two parts), Part 2 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1982), 2167.
84. Logevall, Embers of War, 630. For a more comprehensive analysis of Washington’s involvement in Vietnamese affairs after the Geneva accords, see Kathryn C. Statler, Replacing France: The Origins of American Intervention in Vietnam (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2007); and Edward Miller, Misalliance: Ngo Dinh Diem, the United States, and the Fate of South Vietnam (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2013), chapter 3. On France’s diminishing role in Vietnam after 1954, see Pierre Grosser, “La France et l’Indochine (1953–1956): Une ‘carte de visite’ en ‘peau de chagrin,’” PhD diss., Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris, 2002.
85. “Ket luan cuoc thao luan o Hoi nghi trung uong lan thu bay,” 177.
86. Quoted in BCGH to FO, 27 May 1955, FO 371/117100, NAUK, 1.
87. On this concept, see Thomas J. Christensen, Useful Adversaries: Grand Strategy, Domestic Mobilization, and Sino-American Conflict, 1947–1958 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1996). The quoted passage is from page 6.
88. “Nghi quyet cua Ban Bi thu, so 03-NQ/TW, ngay 29 thang 1 nam 1955: ‘Thanh lap Tieu ban dan toc’” [Secretariat Resolution, no. 03-NQ/TW, 29 January 1955: “Establishing a National Sub-Committee”], in VKD: 1955, 37; “Dien cua Ban Bi thu, ngay 9 thang 2 nam 1955, gui Xu uy Nam Bo va Lien khu uy V, ve chong am muu dich du do va cuong ep giao dan di cu vao Nam” [Secretariat Cable, 9 February 1955, Sent to the Nam Bo Executive Committee and Interzone V Executive Committee, on Opposing the Enemy’s Plan to Entice and Pressure Catholics Who Migrate to the South], in VKD: 1955, 54.
89. “Chi thi cua Ban Bi thu, so 06-CT/TW, ngay 10 thang 2 nam 1955, ve viec chong hoi nghi khoi xam luoc Dong Nam A o Bang Coc” [Secretariat Instruction, no. 06-CT/TW, 10 February 1955, on the Matter of Opposing the Bangkok Conference of the Southeast Asia Aggression Bloc], in VKD: 1955, 61.
90. “Chi thi cua Bo Chinh tri, so 26-CT/TW, ngay 15 thang 6 nam 1955, tinh hinh hon loan o mien Nam va nhiem vu cong tac cu the cua chung ta o mien Nam Viet Nam” [Politburo Resolution, no. 26-CT/TW, 15 June 1955, on the Troubling Situation in the South and Our Actual Tasks and Responsibilities in Southern Vietnam], in VKD: 1955, 361–62, 387.
91. “Chi thi cua Bo Chinh tri, so 07-CT/TW, ngay 16 thang 2 nam 1955, day manh dau tranh pha am muu cua dich trong viec du do va cuong ep giao dan di cu vao Nam” [Politburo Instruction, no. 07-CT/TW, 16 February 1955, on Strengthening the Struggle to Destroy the Enemy’s Plan to Entice and Pressure Catholics Who Migrate to the South], in VKD: 1955, 71.
92. Pham Van Dong quoted in American Imperialism’s Intervention in Vietnam, 14.
93. BCGH to FO, 1 October 1955, FO 371/117101, NAUK, 2.
94. BCGH to FO, 12 November 1955, FO 371/117101, NAUK, 2; “Vietnam: Annual Review for 1955,” 10; Dommen, Indochinese Experience of the French and the Americans, 343. According to the British consul, it was “symptomatic of the different treatment which we are enjoying here that my staff and I were invited [by DRVN authorities] to join the newly formed ‘International Club,’ ostensibly planned as a meeting place for ‘diplomates et assimilés’ and [DRVN] officials” (BCGH to FO, 12 November 1955, 2).
95. French General Delegation, Hanoi [hereafter FGDH], to MFA, 18 June 1956, #71, AO: Vietnam Nord [hereafter VN], ADF, 8.
96. Logevall, Embers of War, 620.
97. Quoted in “Rapport du Président Indien de la Commission de Contrôle en Indochine sur les entretiens avec Ho Chi Minh” [Report on Meetings with Ho Chi Minh by the Indian Commissioner on the ICSC], 27 October, Bôite 6, D:I, AIPMF, 1–2.
98. BCGH to FO, 14 June 1955, FO 371/117100, NAUK, 1.
99. BCGH to FO, 3 May 1955, 1.
100. BCGH to FO, 27 August 1955, FO 371/117101, NAUK, 1.
101. “Vietnam: Annual Review for 1955,” 1, 3.
102. Jessica M. Chapman, Cauldron of Resistance: Ngo Dinh Diem, the United States, and 1950s Southern Vietnam (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2013), 114. See also Jessica M. Chapman, “The Sect Crisis of 1955 and the American Commitment to Ngo Dinh Diem,” Journal of Vietnamese Studies 5, no. 1 (Winter 2010): 37–85.
103. “Note: a/s des responsabilités dans l’origine du conflit vietnamien” [Note: On the Issue of Responsibility in the Origins of the Vietnamese Conflict], 8 March 1965, #147, AO: Vietnam Conflit, ADF, 1.
104. Quoted in BCGH to FO, 27 May 1955, FO 371/117100, NAUK, 1.
105. “Dien cua Ban Bi thu, ngay 15 thang 5 nam 1955” [Secretariat Cable, 15 May 1955], in VKD: 1955, 299.
106. On the “downgrading” of COSVN, see Edwin E. Moïse, Historical Dictionary of the Vietnam War (Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2001), 408.
107. Philippe Franchini, Les guerres d’Indochine, Vol. 2: De la bataille de Dien Bien Phu à la chute de Saïgon [The Indochina Wars, Vol. 2: From the Battle of Dien Bien Phu to the Fall of Saigon] (Paris: Éditions Pygmalion/Gérard Watelet, 1988), 182; Duiker, Communist Road to Power, 184, 186.
108. BCGH to FO, 4 April 1955, FO 371/117100, NAUK, 1.
109. BCGH to FO, 6 June 1955, FO 371/117100, NAUK, 1 (emphasis in original).
110. Reported in BCGH to FO, 3 January 1955, FO 371/1171099, NAUK, 1.
111. BCGH to FO, 5 August 1955, FO 371/117100, NAUK, 1.
112. BCGH to FO, 14 June 1955, 1–2.
113. Canadian Delegation to the ICSC in Vietnam, Hanoi, to Secretary of State, Department of External Affairs, Ottawa, 4 July 1955, 7.
114. Quoted in Commonwealth Secretariat, “Vietnam: Background Paper,” September 1967, R219-121-3-E [Part 3], Vol. 9523, RG 25, LAC, 14. See also “Vietnam: Chronology,” 2. The position of Diem’s regime regarding the 1956 elections was articulated in Republic of Vietnam, The Problem of Reunification in Vietnam (Saigon: Ministry of Information, 1958). Diem would, in fact, declare 20 July 1954, the day of the signing of the Geneva agreements, a “day of shame” (jour de la honte). Quoted in Tranh-Minh Tiet, Les relations Americano-Vietnamiennes de Kennedy à Nixon: Tome I—Kennedy–Ngo Dinh Diem [US–Vietnamese Relations from Kennedy to Nixon: Volume 1—Kennedy–Ngo Dinh Diem] (Paris: Nouvelles Éditions Latines, 1971), 35.
115. Vien nghien cuu chu nghia Mac-Lenin va tu tuong Ho Chi Minh, Lich su Dang Cong san Viet Nam, Tap 2: 1954–1975 [History of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Volume 2: 1954–1975] (Hanoi: Nha xuat ban Chinh tri quoc gia, 1995), 35.
116. Quoted in Chapman, Cauldron of Resistance, 119.
117. “Vietnam: Annual Review for 1955,” 4.
118. Mark Moyar, Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954–1965 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 58.
119. David W. P. Elliott, The Vietnamese War: Revolution and Social Change in the Mekong Delta, 1930–1975, concise ed. (Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 2007), 97.
120. Philippe Devillers, “Le passage du relais au Viet-nam, juin 1954–avril 1956” [The Passing of the Torch in Vietnam, June 1954–April 1956], in Charles-Robert Ageron and Philippe Devillers, eds., Les guerres d’Indochine de 1945 à 1975 [The Indochina Wars from 1945 to 1975] (Paris: Institut d’Histoire du Temps Présent, 1996), 138.
121. The plan is summarized in BCGH to FO, 8 September 1955, FO 371/117101, NAUK, 1.
122. Trung tam khoa hoc xa hoi va nhan van quoc gia—Vien su hoc, Lich su Viet Nam, 12. The VFF became a northern umbrella organization closely linked to the VWP. Incorporating movements, organizations, and individuals representing various social classes, ethnic groups, and religions, it relied on mass participation and mobilization to promote national unity in the face of external aggression and internal subversion, and supervised the activities of state agencies and employees. See Nguyen Van Binh, ed., Mat tran To quoc Viet Nam: Nhung chang duong lich s
u (1930–2010) [The Vietnam Fatherland Front: Historical Phases, 1930–2010] (Hanoi: Nha xuat ban Lao dong, 2009), 242–53. According to the French General Delegation in Hanoi, the VFF was “a mass organization” consisting of representatives from “all organizations” and “all different social classes” in the DRVN. Its charge was facilitating implementation in the DRVN of “the policy line defined by the Government under the tutelage of the [VWP].” The VWP issued directives; the VFF mobilized the masses behind them. See FGDH to MFA, 9 April 1959, #17, AO: VN, ADF, 2.
123. “Vietnam: Annual Review for 1955,” 1.
124. On the referendum, see Jessica M. Chapman, “Staging Democracy: South Vietnam’s 1955 Referendum to Depose Bao Dai,” Diplomatic History 30, no. 4 (September 2006): 671–703.
125. Seth Jacobs, Cold War Mandarin: Ngo Dinh Diem and the Origins of America’s War in Vietnam (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006), 85.
126. A positive assessment of the referendum is offered in Dommen, Indochinese Experience of the French and the Americans, 298.
127. Pham Van Dong letter to the two cochairmen of the Geneva Conference on Indochina, 14 February 1956, FO 371/123446, NAUK, 2.
128. “Vietnam: Annual Review for 1955,” 6.
129. Logevall, Embers of War, 649. In March 1946, Ho agreed on behalf of the DRVN to the return of the French in Vietnam for a period of five years in exchange for recognition by Paris of the “Republic of Vietnam” as a “free state” within the Indochinese Federation and the French Union. Many Vietnamese considered these “6 March Accords” tantamount to “abandonment of national independence.” See Marangé, Le communisme vietnamien, 164–65.
130. Vien nghien cuu chu nghia Mac-Lenin, Lich su Dang Cong san Viet Nam, 35.
131. Cao Van Luong et al., Lich su Viet Nam [Vietnamese History] (Hanoi: Nha xuat ban Khoa hoc xa hoi, 1995), 68.
132. “Dien cua Trung uong, ngay 8 thang 3 nam 1956: Gui Xu uy Nam Bo va Lien khu uy mien Nam Trung Bo” [Cable from the Center, 8 March 1956: Sent to the Nam Bo Executive Committee and the Interzone Committee of Southern Trung Bo], in Dang Cong san Viet Nam, Van kien Dang—Toan tap, Tap 17: 1956 [Party Documents—Complete Series, Vol. 17: 1956] (Hanoi: Nha xuat ban Chinh tri quoc gia, 2002) [hereafter VKD: 1956], 77–78.
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