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Anthony Eden, British diplomacy and the origins of the Geneva Conference of 1954

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Kevin Ruane
Kevin Ruane
Affiliation:
Christ Church College, Canterbury
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Abstract

It is almost forty years since the Geneva conference of April–July 1954 ended the French war in Indo-China. The ‘success’ of the conference was seen as a triumph for the efforts of British diplomacy, and for Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden in particular, a judgement which has altered little with the passage of time. The following article questions this view on the grounds that, ironically, British support for Geneva had little or nothing to do with the situation in Indo-China. On the contrary, it arose in the wider context of policy towards the European Defence Community. It was also a product of Eden's unhappiness at Britain's junior status in the so-called Anglo-American ‘special relationship’. The British attitude to Geneva only became more positive in March-April 1954 when French fortunes reached their nadir and the alternative to a negotiated solution in Viet-Nam seemed to be American, or American-led, military intervention. Faced with this potentially catastrophic prospect, the previously ‘unwanted’ conference assumed a new relevance for Eden and British diplomacy.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 37 , Issue 1 , March 1994 , pp. 153 - 172
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

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