Bahá'í Faith in Vietnam decisive French defeat at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, both sides met at the Geneva Conference on July 21, 1954. A provisional division of Vietnam was made at the 17th parallel, creating the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in the north and the State of Vietnam (later the Republic of Vietnam) in the south. Much of the development of the Bahá'í Faith during the following period took place in South Vietnam; the first Bahá'í groups in the north would not be established until 1992, long after the country's reunification. In February 1954, Shirin Fozdar, a Bahá'í from India who had
1954 Geneva Conference negotiations to that end should resume at an appropriate time. The Belgian and British delegations said that while they were not going to accept "the Soviet and Chinese proposals, that did not mean a rejection of the ideas they contained". In the end, however, the conference participants did not agree on any declaration. While the delegates began to assemble in Geneva from late April, the discussions on Indochina did not begin until May 8, 1954. The Viet Minh had achieved their decisive victory over the French Union forces at Dien Bien Phu the previous day. The Western allies did not