History of Vietnam since 1945 between France and the Viet-Minh, paving the way for the French to leave Vietnam. The Geneva Conference of 1954 ended France's colonial presence in Vietnam and partitioned the country into two states at the 17th parallel pending unification on the basis of internationally supervised free elections. Ngô Đình Diệm, a former mandarin with a strong Catholic and Confucian background, was selected as Premier of the State of Vietnam by Bảo Đại. While Diệm was trying to settle the differences between the various armed militias in the South, Bảo Đại was persuaded to reduce his power. Diệm created a referendum in
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