After the 1954 Geneva international conference, Vietnam was divided into two parts. On paper, North and South Vietnam were twin countries born at the same moment.

From its inception, South Vietnam was only considered to be an outpost in the war against communism.

By the mid-sixties, the United States had poured more than half a million troops into South Vietnam.

After Watergate, America was a ship without a rudder. Vietnam was left to its own devices, drifting along towards its fate.

South Vietnam had to be built from scratch and, from the very beginning, depended far too much on the Western superpowers. As in the case of a person on public welfare, this dependency, which became greater with each day, was quite difficult to shake.

Through leadership of the fight against French colonialism, Ho Chi Minh had made a name for himself in the international political arena.