Ngo Dinh Diem presidential visit to the United States became the Senate Majority Leader, while Mansfield—a Democrat from Montana—had been a professor of Asian history before entering politics; as a result his opinions about Vietnam were more influential and held in high regard by his fellow senators. In 1954, the French lost the Battle of Dien Bien Phu and the Geneva Conference was held to determine the future of Indochina. The Viet Minh were given control of North Vietnam, while the State of Vietnam controlled the territory south of the 17th parallel. The Geneva agreements, which the State of Vietnam did not sign, called for reunification elections to be
Geneva Agreement (1966) Guyana should have signed it. On the 52nd anniversary of the international treaty being signed in Switzerland, Venezuelan Government has reaffirmed it's commitment to the Geneva Agreement. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza declared that the Bolivarian nation was ready to comply to the agreement. President Nicolas Maduro has called on the Venezuelan people to defend their "legitimate and non-renounceable" territorial rights over the Essequibo region. Defense Minister Vladamir Padrino Lopez stresses that Venezuelans should continue to claim their territory and stated on his social media "The Sun of Venezuela is born in the Essequibo." The agreement was criticized in Guyana