After the Second World War, Great Britain let go her empire in Asia with relatively good grace; France was in less of a hurry to abandon Indochina, particularly with the specter (or bogey) of a Communist Vietnamese regime in the wings. This program covers the negotiations toward peace and the beginnings of war, the events leading to the Battle of Dien Bien Phu and the defeat of the French, and the Geneva Convention of 1954 and the division of Indochina into North and South, which effectively recognized North Vietnam as an independent country. Because the Geneva Convention was signed by the Chinese and the U.S. did not recognize Mao’s China, the U.S. would not sign the Convention; that, and the division of Vietnam, set the stage for the second Vietnam War. (15 minutes, b&w/color)