The First Indochina War was a war lasting from 1945 to 1954, between communist-backed Indochinese Independence fighters and the nation of France, which was attempting to regain the control of their colonies.
The war ended after the both sides agreed to a compromise agreement backed by the United States, to release the countries of Laos and Cambodia and split the country of Vietnam into the communist North and democratic (albeit later dictatorial) South, with the goal of holding a popular referendum on unifying Vietnam later on. The failure to hold this referendum and tensions between both sides led to the outbreak of the Second Indochina War in 1960.
