← → When 1954 began, the French had been fighting the insurgent communist-dominated Viet Minh for more than seven years attempting to retain control of their colony Vietnam.

In July, a cease fire agreement was reached by the Geneva Accords dividing Vietnam into two provisional states at the 17th parallel of latitude.

Diệm overcame an early challenge to his rule from army leaders and the Hòa Hảo and Cao Đài religious sects.

The United States pledged its support to the Diệm government and began to replace France as the principal foreign power involved in South Vietnam.

United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announced that 26 B-26 bombers and 200 U.S. Air Force mechanics would be provided the French to aid them in their war against the Viet Minh.

[3] The National Security Council of the United States approved the assignment of CIA operative Col. Edward Lansdale to Saigon.

[4]: 15 President Eisenhower met with the National Security Council to consider U.S. intervention to assist the French at Dien Binh Phu.

[5]: 199 A U.S. army study concluded that the use of nuclear weapons by the U.S. to relieve the siege of Điện Biên Phủ was feasible and suggested an operational plan.

[5]: 200–1 President Eisenhower met with eight Congressional leaders, including Lyndon Johnson, to discuss Operation Vulture, a proposal to aid the French trapped in Dien Bien Phu with carrier-based air strikes.

The French wanted American air strikes, but opposed a multinational coalition; the British preferred to rely on the upcoming Geneva Convention to resolve the problem of the war in Vietnam.

Winston Churchill in Great Britain, however, said he 'was not prepared to give any undertakings about United Kingdom military action in Indochina in advance of the results of Geneva.

Two American pilots, James B. McGovern Jr. and Wallace Buford, were killed when their cargo plane, attempting to airdrop supplies into Dien Bien Phu, was shot down.

[10] Most of the others are presumed to have died in captivity although the fate of 3,013 Vietnamese serving in the French army and captured at Dien Bien Phu is unknown.

Ambassador Douglas Dillon told the State Department: "We were favorably impressed (with Diệm) but only in the realization that we are prepared to accept the seemingly ridiculous prospect that this Yogi-like mystic could assume the charge he is apparently about to undertake only because the standard set by his predecessors is so low.

Lansdale, a former advertising executive, was tasked with helping pro-Western elements in Vietnam wage psychological and political warfare against the communist-dominated Viet Minh.

Harwood's terms were that the U.S. must participate directly in the training of the South Vietnamese army and the government of Vietnam must show uncompromising resistance to Viet Minh efforts to expand the territory under its control.

[17]: 37–43 In the words of one historian, "Diệm's attractiveness to his first American patrons derived from three qualities: he was a certified anti-communist nationalist, he was a Roman Catholic, and he understood English."

[20]: 605 The Final Declaration stated that the demarcation line at the 17th parallel between North and South Vietnam was only "provisional and should not in any way be interpreted as constituting a political or territorial boundary."

[20]: 605–6  (In his autobiography published in 1963, Eisenhower noted that "had elections been held as of the time of the fighting [1954], possibly 80 per cent of the population would have voted for the Communist Ho Chi Minh ... rather than chief of State Bao Dai.

[23] President Eisenhower and the National Security Council decided that the U.S. would provide assistance for military training in South Vietnam "working through the French only insofar as necessary."

The decision to train the South Vietnam army, in the opinion of one historian, "set in motion a chain of events that would prove irreversible.

"[5]: 228–31 An Air Vietnam Bristol Freighter evacuating civilians from Hanoi to Saigon crashed while making an emergency landing at Pakse, Laos killing 47 on board.

[19]: 184 The task of the "stay-behinds" was political activism to ensure a victory for Ho Chi Minh in the national elections called for in 1956 in the Geneva Accords.

[27]: 38  Diệm resolved the political crisis temporarily by appointing four Hòa Hảo and two Cao Đài leaders to his government.

[20]: 621 The U.S. Department of State instructed the Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) in Saigon to begin a "program of training that number of Vietnamese armed forces necessary to carry out internal security missions.

[27]: 39 The Chief of Staff of the South Vietnamese army, Nguyễn Văn Hinh, planned to attack the Presidential palace and overthrow the Diệm government.

Landsdale and the SMM got wind of the coup d'état and persuaded two key military supporters of Hinh to make an official visit to the Philippines accompanied by Lansdale.

[23] The record for the most passengers taken in one journey during Operation Passage to Freedom was set by the USS General Black, which sailed with 5,224 Vietnamese aboard.

[20]: 638–9 General Vinh left Vietnam for exile in Paris, thereby reducing the possibility of a military coup against the Diệm government.

[20]: 636 [23] North Vietnam concluded an aid agreement with China for equipment and technical assistance to repair roads, railroads, and other infrastructure.