President Kennedy and Vietnam

United States interest in southeast Asia, and in particular in Vietnam, began during the World War II era, but the focus of America's attention was on Europe. The raising of the Iron Curtain, the escalating tensions in occupied Germany and its former capital of Berlin, and what was seen as Communist agitation in other parts of Europe kept America's eye on that region. Since part of America's European strategy was to keep our wartime allies closely tied to our interests, the United States somewhat reluctantly supported the French desire to maintain her hold on what was once called French Indochina. With tacit moral support and indirect material support, France held on until 1954. But at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, the French were decisively defeated, and the French Empire in Asia came to an end. Vietnam was partitioned into the quasi-democratic South and the communist North at the Geneva conference in 1954.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was elected in 1960, a time of crisis in the course of the Cold War. Between 1954 and 1960 America had supported the anti-Communist government of South Vietnam under Premier Ngo Dinh Diem as part of her overall policy of containment, which had begun under President Harry Truman. During President Kennedy's all too brief administration, foreign-policy issues remained on the front burner: Berlin, Cuba, Laos, Vietnam, and the continuing tension with the Soviet Union were issues of virtual daily concern to the Kennedy administration.

Photo from The John F. KennedyPresidential Library

Thus, foreign policy was a high priority on Kennedy's agenda. As he stressed in his inaugural address, Kennedy's warning to the Communist world was that we would “pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend or oppose any foe in order to assure the survival and success of liberty.” Fighting words, which thrilled many Americans.

In the summer of 1961, Kennedy met in Vienna with Soviet Prime Minister Khruschev, and was overpowered by the more experienced Russian. On his way back to Washington, Kennedy decided that the U.S. had to draw a line in the sand for the Communist bloc, and he confided to a journalist: “Now is the time, Vietnam is the place.”

Kennedy shifted the U.S. approach to the rivalry with the USSR. According to Stanley Karnow, while the Eisenhower Administration relied mainly on the concept of “massive retaliation,” basing its strategy on nuclear determent, Kennedy favored a strategy which relied heavily in counterinsurgency. This approach would be the backbone of Kennedy's policy in Vietnam.

President Kennedy's support for South Vietnam came in the form of military and financial aid in the presence of thousands of American advisers in Vietnam. Although those advisers were not to engage in combat operations themselves, in order to direct the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, they often found themselves in situations in which they were forced to involve themselves directly in the fighting in one way or another. President Kennedy's military advisers made him aware of those harsh facts of four, and he acquiesced in what he saw as military necessity, but he kept the reality of what was happening in Vietnam from the American people.

Even with American support, however, Premier Ngo Dinh Diem had his hands fall, not only with the Communists, but with discontented parts of his nation, in particular with the Buddhist population. as political unrest grew throughout the country, and as the results on the battlefield or less than encouraging, a group of Vietnamese generals approached the United States Ambassador with a proposal to rid the country of Diem and take over themselves. Although Kennedy was a firm supporter of Diem—in May 1961 he had sent Vice President Johnson to endorse the South Vietnamese president—as the winds shifted in South Vietnam, Kennedy approved the U.S. position of “not thwarting” Diem's ouster. Reportedly shocked by the assassination of GM and his brother, which Kennedy had not anticipated, Kennedy seemed to be developing doubts about the whole Vietnam operation. What he might or might not have done in Vietnam remains unclear, for like the Vietnamese Premier President Kennedy himself was assassinated in November 22, 1962. Conduct of the war was not turned over to President Lyndon Johnson.

John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address

This is the transcript of Kennedy's inaugural address, where the seeds of U.S. commitment in Vietnam can be found. The speech strongly focuses on foreign policy. Special attention merits the fifth paragraph, wherein Kennedy asserts that "[...]we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty."

Basic Counterinsurgency Plan, from the Country Staff Committee in Saigon (January 1961)
From the Historian of the State Department
http://www.state.gov/www/about_state/history/vol_i_1961/a.html (Doc #1)

Shortly after Kennedy's inauguration, the Country Staff Committee in Saigon submitted this plan to Washington. It includes recommended action plans and estimated costs of the operations.

May 25, 1961 Special Address to Congress
From the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library
http://www.cs.umb.edu/jfklibrary/j052561.htm

In the first part of his address, Kennedy reviews the challenges facing the U.S. in foreign policy. He mentions "the assassins who have taken the lives of four thousand civil officers in the last twelve months in Vietnam alone." Signaling his shift from Eisenhower's strategic approach, Kennedy emphasizes that "that nuclear weapons cannot prevent subversion" (hence the "Basic Counterinsurgency Plan," above).

Kennedy's 1963 TV Interviews on Vietnam
From Vincent Ferraro's web site at Mount Holyoke College
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/kentv.htm

In these TV interviews, Kennedy shows U.S. disappointment with Diem, particularly with his mistreatment of Buddhists. At the time of these two interviews, Kennedy already knew about General Minh's plot against Diem.

October 3, 1963 White House Statement: U.S. Policy on Vietnam
From Vincent Ferraro's web site at Mount Holyoke College
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/state63.htm

This White House statement hails the progress of U.S. policy in Vietnam and estimates the end to the military involvement by 1965.