The agreement,signed in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1954 during the Geneva peaceconference, is the first international document acknowledging theindependence, sovereignty, unification and territorial integrity ofVietnam as well as Laos and Cambodia.
Together withthe 1946 French-Vietnamese preliminary agreement and the 1973 ParisAgreement, the Geneva Agreement on ceasefire in Vietnam is the mostimportant diplomatic document of Vietnam during the two resistance warsagainst France and the US.
It was a comprehensivesolution in both political and military terms, ending the war andrestoring peace in Vietnam, which went beyond the initial intention ofworld big players to limit the document to the framework of a pureceasefire agreement.
Politically and legally, thecountries participating in the conference recognised and committed torespecting fundamental national rights of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia,which are national sovereignty, independence, unification andterritorial integrity.
The agreement internationallymarked the failure of the invasion war launched by a strongimperialist, as well as the beginning of the collapse of the entirecolonial system on the global scale, contributing to encouraging thenational liberation struggle of colony peoples.
Atthe same time, the agreement was a crucial diplomatic success in thefirst multilateral talks that Vietnam had taken part in, creating a firmlegal foundation for later negotiations, especially that with the USduring the Paris conference on Vietnam.
The Genevaconference on restoring peace in Vietnam and Indochina was heldfollowing the decision of the February 1954 meeting in Berlin of theforeign ministers of the Soviet Union, the US, the UK and France. In thecontext of the different goals and interests pursued by these bigplayers as well as their great influence, Vietnam still upheld theexternal policy of independence and self-reliance with the highest goalof achieving acknowledgement of Vietnam’s independence, sovereignty andterritorial integrity.
On May 10, Deputy PrimeMinister Pham Van Dong, who led the delegation of the DemocraticRepublic of Vietnam (DRV) to the conference, presented the eight-pointstance of the DRV, stating that the withdrawal of foreign troops out ofthree Indochinese countries was the most important basis for the endingof war and the restoration of peace in Indochina.
According to Tran Viet Phuong, former secretary of Deputy PM Dong, theDien Bien Phu victory as well as a series of military successes inbattlefields across Vietnam was of significant importance, giving anadvantage to the DRV delegation at the conference.
The victory helped garner the support of French friends and peace-lovingpeople around the world for the struggle for national liberation of theVietnamese people, he said.
Under the leadership ofthe Communist Party of Vietnam and President Ho Chi Minh, Vietnamsuccessfully brought into full play the power of the national unity blocand combined the military and diplomatic strength, leading to thesigning of the Geneva Agreement.-VNA