Joe and Lai Sell Out Vietnam at the Geneva Conference

Joe told Ho Chi Min to take the Geneva agreement as is, divided at the 17th parallel and wait a couple years before any attempt to unify with the south. Joe knew if you let Pham Van Dong have his way, everyone would know China was behind that decision. The overseas Chinese knew they'd be caught in the crosshairs if governments got paranoid about their ethnic Chinese population. And of course, besides all this, Joe knew with a high degree of certainty under the present conditions, McCarthyism, and the Red Scare now in full swing, if Vietnam was unified under Hochi men with France gone, the US would come running.