Photography in Vietnam disseminate images of war to an international audience. The division of Vietnam along the 17th parallel after the 1954 Geneva Conference not only reflected the conflicting ideologies within Vietnamese Republicanism, but also the differences in the institutional structures of news agencies. The North Vietnamese government established the Vietnamese News Agency (VNA) in 1945, shortly after Ho Chi Minh’s proclamation of independence in Hanoi, as well as the Liberation News Agency (LNA) in the South along the Ho Chi Minh trail. VNA and LNA photographers were both soldiers and war correspondents, trained in military and photography techniques and answerable to the
1954 Geneva Conference Truman administration of having "lost China" when the communists were successful in dominating the country. The Eisenhower administration had considered air strikes in support of the French at Dien Bien Phu but was unable to obtain a commitment to united action from key allies, such as the United Kingdom. Eisenhower was wary of becoming drawn into "another Korea" that would be deeply unpopular with the American public. US domestic policy considerations strongly influenced the country's position at Geneva. Columnist Walter Lippmann wrote on April 29 that "the American position at Geneva is an impossible one, so long as leading Republican