- March 13 - French troops begin the battle against the Viet Minh in Dien Bien Phu.
- March 23 - The Viet Minh capture the main airstrip of Dien Bien Phu. The remaining French Army units there are partially isolated.
- July 21 - The Geneva Conference sends French forces to the south, and Vietnamese forces to the north, of a ceasefire line, and calls for elections to decide the government for all of Vietnam by July 1956. Failure to abide by the terms of the agreement leads to the establishment de facto of regimes of North Vietnam and South Vietnam, and the Vietnam War.