Sixty years ago today in 1954, the Geneva Accords divided
Vietnam into two countries at the 17th parallel. It also freed
Vietnam from many years of colonial rule by the French and formally recognized
Communist control of North Vietnam.
This year we commemorate the 50th anniversary of
the Vietnam War. I am old enough to remember when our country did not call it
a “war.” In the
year 1968 alone, over 14,000 Americans died in Vietnam; a good many of them during
and due to the Tet offensive. There were several individuals from our area who participated in this war, by choice or by draft.
During a two-year transition period created by the above-mentioned Geneva
Accords, Vietnamese civilians could relocate to either North or South Vietnam, and the military was to return to their place of origin. Elections were
scheduled to be held in 1956, but that did not occur.
The United States and South Vietnam never actually signed the
Accords, and although the USA did formally acknowledge them they did not promise
to obey them. Our Secretary of State John Foster Dulles did not recognize,
shake hands or speak to the Chinese and Viet Minh delegates. Edward Moise has
written a 10-part account of the events leading up to, surrounding, and ending
the Vietnam War that can be found at
It is a thoughtful account of the many factors at play
during this period of our history and I learned much of the background and details that I hadn't considered or known of before.
Secretary of State John Foster Dulles was married to Janet Pomeroy Avery of Auburn, NY, and is buried in Arlington
Cemetery, whose website has a very complete biography of his life at http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/jfdulles.htm. Their son, John F. W. Dulles, was born in Auburn in 1913. It is indeed a small world after all.
