French colonial empire Bien Phu and the signing of the 1954 Geneva Accords. France agreed to withdraw its forces from all its colonies in French Indochina, while stipulating that Vietnam would be temporarily divided at the 17th parallel, with control of the north given to the Viet Minh as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam under Ho Chi Minh, and the south becoming the State of Vietnam. The refusal of Ngô Đình Diệm (the US-supported president of the first Republic of Vietnam [RVN]) to allow elections in 1956, as had been stipulated by the Geneva Conference, eventually led to the Vietnam War. In France's
Geneva Agreement (1966) contention that the "Arbitral Award of 1899 about the frontier between British Guyana and Venezuela is null and void", followed by Venezuela declaring ownership of a large portion of Guyana's territory. The Geneva Agreement was published in the Nº 28.008 Official Gazette of Venezuela of 15 April 1996 and subsequently registered by this same country on 5 May 1966 in the General Office of the Organization of the United Nations under registration number Nº I-8192. Three months later after signing the agreement, on 26 May 1966, the British Guyana colony receives the independence, being called from then on "Republic of