S1 Ep14: The End of French Indochina: Dien Bien Phu, Geneva and “Citizen Sihanouk”

In the Shadows of Utopia: The Khmer Rouge and the Cambodian Nightmare

How does the First Indochina War end? What do the Geneva Accords mean for Cambodia? Who wins the 1955 Cambodian general election?

Time Period Covered December 1953 – July 1955

Cambodia faces Viet Minh assaults around the country as the First Indochina War comes to its climax, but the French will suffer their most stunning defeat at Dien Bien Phu. World powers will convene to find a solution to the conflict. The resulting ‘peace’ will marginalise the Cambodian communist movement at the expense of the Vietnamese one, and Sihanouk will create a new political movement.

Google Maps View of Dien Bien Phu
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Sources

Philip Short Pol Pot: History of a Nightmare
David Chandler The Tragedy of Cambodian History
Ben Kiernan How Pol Pot Came to Power
Milton Osbourne Sihanouk
Christopher Goscha Vietnam: A New History