Fear and Loathing in Indochina: An analysis of the American refusal to sign the Geneva Accords, 1954

摘要

At the 1954 Geneva Conference, five standing world powers attempted to come to a resolution on the ongoing violence in Indochina—a military conflict in small, economically-insignificant nations including Vietnam which ultimately became a microcosm for the political and military divide between communism and capitalism around the world. In this paper, I argue that the refusal of the United Statesu27 delegation to sign the conferenceu27s accords signals a fundamental shift towards radicalism in American policy and ultimately foreshadows their defeat during the Vietnam War.