For eight years, Vietnam was a colonial battleground -- as France fought a nationalist movement led by Ho Chi Minh. Despite financial backing from the United States, the French lost control of Vietnam in 1954 -- after a Vietnamese force captured the French outpost at Dien Bien Phu.

An international peace conference in Geneva temporarily divided Vietnam into a communist-led North and non-communist South and agreed that countrywide elections would be held in 1956. America opposed the elections, fearing the communists would gain control. The elections were never held.
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