The 1954 Geneva Accords called for a temporary partition of Vietnam at the 17th Parallel—creating a Communist state in the North and a French-backed non-Communist state in the South. There was a 300-day period of free travel between North and South Vietnam before the border closed. The U.S. ran a propaganda campaign to encourage Northerners to “Go South to avoid Communism,” where they would be “welcomed with open arms.” The campaign wasn’t needed. Hundreds of thousands of North Vietnamese had religious, economic, and other reasons to flee communism.
Instrument of Surrender of the Japanese in the Philippine Islands
Postwar United States (1945 to early 1970s)
