Exit of the French, 1950–1954

In 1950, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and China recognized each other diplomatically. The Soviet Union quickly followed suit. President Harry S. Truman countered by recognizing the French puppet government of Vietnam. Washington feared that Hanoi was now a pawn of communist China and by extension, Moscow. This flew in the face of the long historical antipathy between the two nations, of which the U.S. seems to have been ignorant.

The outbreak of the Korean War in 1950 marked a decisive turning point. From the perspective of many in Washington, what had been a colonial war in Indochina was transformed into another example of communist expansionism directed by the Kremlin.

In 1950, the U.S. Military Assistance and Advisory Group (MAAG) arrived to screen French requests for aid, advise on strategy and train Vietnamese soldiers. By 1954, the U.S. had supplied 300,000 small arms and spent one billion dollars in support of the French military effort. The Eisenhower administration was shouldering 80 percent of the cost of the war. The Viet Minh received crucial support from the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China. Chinese support in the Border Campaign of 1950 allowed supplies to come from China into Vietnam. Throughout the conflict, U.S. intelligence estimates remained skeptical of French chances of success.

The Battle of Dien Bien Phu marked the end of French involvement in Indochina. The Viet Minh and their mercurial commander Vo Nguyen Giap handed the French a stunning military defeat. On May 7, 1954, the French Union garrison surrendered. At the Geneva Conference the French negotiated a ceasefire agreement with the Viet Minh. Independence was granted to Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. As a U.S. Army study noted, France lost the war primarily because it "neglected to cultivate the loyalty and support of the Vietnamese people."

Vietnam was temporarily partitioned at the 17th parallel. This was the first time in history that Vietnam had been divided in half. The Viet Minh established a socialist state, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, in the north and engaged in a land reform program in which the mass killing of perceived class enemies occurred. Ho Chi Minh later apologized. In the south a non-communist state was established under the Emperor Bảo Đại, a former puppet of the French and the Japanese. Ngo Dinh Diem became his Prime Minister. More than 400,000 civilians and soldiers had died during the nine year conflict.