Editing Zhou Enlai (section)

===The Geneva Conference===
{{Main|Geneva Conference (1954)}}

In April 1954, Zhou traveled to Switzerland to attend the [[Geneva Conference (1954)|Geneva Conference]], convened to settle the ongoing [[First Indochina War|Franco-Vietnamese War]]. His patience and shrewdness were credited with assisting the major powers involved (the Soviets, French, Americans, and North Vietnamese) to iron out the agreement ending the war. According to the negotiated peace, French Indochina was to be partitioned into Laos, Cambodia, North Vietnam, and South Vietnam. Elections were agreed to be called within two years to create a coalition government in a united Vietnam, and the [[Vietminh]] agreed to end their guerilla activities in South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.<ref name="Geneva1">Spence 525–526</ref>

During one early meeting in Geneva, Zhou found himself in the same room with the staunchly anticommunist American secretary of state, [[John Foster Dulles]]. After Zhou politely offered to shake his hand, Dulles rudely turned his back and walked out of the room, saying "I cannot." Zhou was interpreted by onlookers as turning this moment of possible humiliation into a small victory by giving only a small, "Gallic-style" shrug to this behavior. Zhou was equally effective in countering Dulles' insistence that China not be given a seat at the sessions. Furthering the impression of Chinese urbanity and civility, Zhou had lunch with British actor [[Charlie Chaplin]], who had been living in Switzerland since being blacklisted in the United States for his radical politics.<ref name="Geneva1" />