CIA • 1966

THE NATIONAL ELECTIONS ISSUE IN VIETNAM FROM 1954 TO 1960

STAT Approved For Release 2004/07/16 : CIA-RDP79T00826A000400010001-0 Approved For Release 2004/07/16 : CIA-RDP79T00826A000400010001-0 Approved Fob'-000400010001-0 25 February 1966 The National Elections Issue In Vietnam From 1954 to 1960 Summary Although the Final Declaration of the 1954 Geneva Agreements called for the conduct of "general elec- tions" throughout Vietnam in July 1956 in order to determine the "national will" on reunification of the country, such elections were never held. The failure to carry them out can be attributed both to the fact that the Hanoi regime almost certainly would not have permitted genuinely free elections to be held in the North, and to the fear of the Diem government in Saigon that it would be outvoted in the South by the Communists. There is plentiful evidence that, whenever Com- munist interests in the North were at stake, Hanoi acted to impede and restrict the work of the Inter- national Control Commission set up to supervise the implementation of the Geneva agreements...