Military history of Australia during the Vietnam War sought to reassert control over French Indochina, which had been occupied by Japan. In 1950, as the communist-backed Việt Minh, led by Ho Chi Minh, began to gain the ascendency in the First Indochina War, the Vietnamese nation had two parallel administrations; the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) (recognised by the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China) and the State of Vietnam (SoV), an associated state in the French Union (recognised by the non-communist world). In 1954, after the defeat of the French at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, the Geneva Accords of 1954 split the country
Congress of Peace in Geneva Congress of Peace in Geneva In 1867, the French pacifist Charles Lemonnier (1806-1891) convened the Congress of Peace in Geneva, known as the "International League of Peace and Liberty". It was ultimately at this conference that it was decided to abolish the sovereignty and international relations of the Holy See, something which Pius IX blamed on secret societies. According to Jasper Ridley, at the 1867 Congress of Geneva, Garibaldi referred to "that pestilential institution which is called the Papacy" and proposed giving "the final blow to the monster". This was a reflection of the bitterness that had been generated by