The Bandung Era } 99
future contest for control over southern Laos. When the Geneva Conference
deliberations resumed on July 12, however, Mendès France proposed the 17th
parallel rather than the 16th as the demarcation line. Zhou Enlai accepted
the proposal, seconded once again by the Soviet representative. Pham was
still reluctant to accept partition, even temporary, but eventually gave in to
Chinese and Soviet pressure. The VWP simply could not continue its strug-
gles without support from the two socialist great powers.
In the final agreement, signed on July 21, 1954, France granted indepen-
dence to all of Vietnam. Millions of Vietnamese moved one way or the other
into their desired regroupment zone. North to south movement far exceeded
south to north. The VWP consolidated its control over the North and began
preparing for a “transition to socialism” along Stalinist lines. In the south,
anti-communists and noncommunists rallied around the regime of the last
emperor of Vietnam, Bao Dai, who had abdicated in August 1945 and become
a figurehead ruler maintained by the French, and sought American support to
stabilize a noncommunist regime in the south. In Laos, the royal government
was recognized as the sole legal authority, but VWP-affiliated Laotian forces
ran Sam Neua and Phong Saly provinces. In Cambodia, the tiny Khmer com-
munist movement was given no role, and the royal government of Norodom
Sihanouk was recognized as the sole government.
Zhou had skillfully advanced China’s interests at Geneva. He maintained
for the PRC a territorial buffer excluding US power from PRC borders: the
DRV, which emerged from the conference with wider diplomatic recogni-
tion of its territorial sovereignty. From this perspective, it did not matter
greatly whether the DRV’s southern boundary was on the 16th or the 17th
parallel. Zhou had angered his VWP comrades by pressuring them to agree
to temporary partition. But it was only later, after the promised bizonal
talks and coalition government leading to a nationwide plebiscite did not
occur, that the VWP began seeing Zhou’s 1954 diplomacy as “betrayal” of
the Vietnamese revolution.^18 In 1954, Zhou along with his VWP comrades,
probably believed it when he promised Pham Van Dong that via the unifica-
tion mechanisms stipulated in the Geneva agreement “all of Vietnam will
be yours.”^19
Zhou, via the Geneva Conference, also opened dialogues with France,
Britain, and the United States. These would grow over subsequent years, giv-
ing Beijing eyes, ears, and a voice beyond the socialist camp. The impres-
sive caliber of Zhou Enlai’s diplomatic skills was also recognized on a global
stage for the first time. Both Zhou’s moderate demeanor and his willingness
to compromise began to send the message that he, and by extension the PRC,
was reasonable and could be dealt with. This was exactly the opposite of the
image of “Red China” being perpetuated by US government agencies. China’s
moderate tactics of the mid-1950s were approved by Mao, but just as certainly
they drew on the diplomatic skill and grace of Zhou Enlai.