Vietnam Peace Commissions: 1954 and 1973

International Commission for Supervision and Control (ICSC) 1954-1974

The ICSC was an international force, formed, created to monitor compliance with the Geneva Accords. Members drawn from three nations (Canada, India, and Poland) served in three separate but interconnected organizations in Vietnam (treated as a single entity), Cambodia, and Laos.

The ICSC's purpose was to supervise the cease-fire, the withdrawal of troops to their respective country, the dismantling of military bases, monitoring of activities at ports-of-entry and the repatriation of military and civilian captives. Much of the work was done between 1954 to 1955. After 1958, Canada had only token representation. The commission withdrew completely in 1969 and ended officially in 1974 when it was replaced by the International Commission of Control and Supervision (ICCS).

The International Control Commission did not outlive the Vietnam War. Its fall came from an unlikely source when India, one of the key member states of the Commission normalized relations with North Vietnam, but not South Vietnam. This insulted the South Vietnamese and they forced the Indians and, by extension, the International Control Commission out of the country. While the Commission tried to continue to function from Hanoi, it became impossible to regulate South Vietnam from a distance. Coupled with the general pointlessness of the institution in the modern world, ICSC was terminated and replaced by ICCS in March 1973.

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