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[[Image:SaigonFall.jpg|thumb|South Vietnamese residents flee [[Saigon]], as North Vietnamese forces enter the city.]]

[[Image:SaigonFall.jpg|thumb|South Vietnamese residents flee [[Saigon]], as North Vietnamese forces enter the city.]]

The '''Vietnam War''', officially the '''Second Indochina Conflict''', was initiated by the [[United States]], in response to a poll conducted that suggested given the planned democratic election after the reduction of the demilitarized zone upheld until [[1956]] since the war would lead to a certain [[communist]] victory.  

The '''Vietnam War''', officially the '''Second Indochina Conflict''', was initiated by the [[United States]], in response to a poll conducted that suggested given the planned democratic election after the reduction of the demilitarized zone upheld until 1956 since the war would lead to a certain [[communist]] victory.  

The 1954 Geneva agreement provided for a cease-fire between communist and anti-communist nationalist forces, the temporary division of Vietnam at approximately the 17th parallel, provisional northern (communist) and southern (noncommunist) zone governments, and the evacuation of anti-communist Vietnamese from northern to southern Vietnam. The agreement also called for an election to be held by July 1956 to bring the two provisional zones under a unified government. However, the South Vietnamese Government refused to accept this provision. On October 26, 1955, South Vietnam declared itself the Republic of Vietnam. <ref>U.S. State Department, Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/4130.htm Vietnam], December 2006. </ref>

The 1954 Geneva agreement provided for a cease-fire between communist and anti-communist nationalist forces, the temporary division of Vietnam at approximately the 17th parallel, provisional northern (communist) and southern (noncommunist) zone governments, and the evacuation of anti-communist Vietnamese from northern to southern Vietnam. The agreement also called for an election to be held by July 1956 to bring the two provisional zones under a unified government. However, the South Vietnamese Government refused to accept this provision. On October 26, 1955, South Vietnam declared itself the Republic of Vietnam. <ref>U.S. State Department, Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/4130.htm Vietnam], December 2006. </ref>