F. Kennedy's main goal in Vietnam was neither to make a ColdWar pawn nor a hotwar battleground out of it, He did not insist that South Vietnam maintained a membership in a Western alliance, Instead, he wanted to halt the Communist guerrillas in order to ensure that the Vietnamese could peacefully choose their future.
However, South Vietnam was too weak to stand alone, The Communists were powerful both in the North and in the South, The President said that "we would not stay in Southeast Asia against the wishes of any local government," but he knew that a major part of "Red China"'s plan was to drive all Western powers out of Southeast Asia and preferably out of all Asia and establish control over the whole region, whose vast population, resources, and strategic location were tempting.
While Kennedy did show that he respected the neutrality of all nations that wished to be neutral, he also expected similar respect from other countries withdrawal of troops, abiding by settled boundaries and by agreements and he was ready to protract US military presence in order to acquire this respect.
That is where American and Communist ideas conflicted, And unfortunate South Vietnam happened to be the battleground where this conflict was being played out,
The United States first pledged to protect South Vietnam in, when the Geneva Accords divided Vietnam along theth parallel.
The new nonCommunist republic, struggling to build a nation on the remnants of over a hundred years of colonial rule, the Japanese occupation, and the war with France, faced insurmountable difficulties.
With the bulk of the population and industry in the hands of Hanoi, with almost no welltrained administrators, with virtually all of the population in an inaccessible and uncontrollable countryside, with a million starving refugees fleeing Communist repression, it was bound to collapse soon.
The vigor of the Vietnamese, the impressive administrative ability of President Diem, and most importantly American aid not only prevented its collapse, but also resulted in significant economic and educational development.
Unfortunately, Diem had the tendency to purge his opposition, forcing dissidents to go underground or go over to the Communists and the local Communists to seek the support of Vietnam's traditional enemies the Chinese.
As North Vietnam's economy began to lag behind that of South Vietnam, as Diem's atrocities prepared the ground for social discontent, Ho Chi Minh mounted his "struggle for national reunification.
" "To liberate the South from the atrocious rule of the US imperialists and their henchmen," Ho began training guerrillas for the infiltration of the South and formed, in, the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam.
By, the "Vietcong" guerrillas, as the Saigon government called them, were destroying South Vietnam's will to resist, hindering its progress through systematic terror.
In the creation of SEATO, in statements to President Diem, and in comments on the Geneva Accords, President Eisenhower had promised to help resist any "aggression or subversion threatening the political independence of the Republic of Vietnam.
" This commitment, which byhad assumed much larger proportions than originally expected, was not one Kennedy could easily abandon,
Unfortunately for the new President, he inherited more than a pledge and an escalating conflict, He inherited a foreign policy that associated Americans in Asia with dictators, CIA intrigue, and violent military responses to revolution.
He inherited a military policy, which had not all prepared the United States to fight, or train others to fight, a war against guerrillas.
Kennedy not only carried out the earlier commitment, but had to expand it because in the lates and earlys, the Communists vastly expanded their efforts to take over the country, and American aid had to be increased to compensate for the shortcomings of the Diem regime.
Thus, it was Eisenhower, Ho Chi Minh, and Diem who shaped John F, Kennedy's Vietnam policy. His own contribution was both to widen American commitment and to keep it limited, Although he was incessantly pressured by the advocates for both general war and complete withdrawal, he neither allowed the war to escalate into an allout conflict nor agreed to sell South Vietnam's security.
His strategy was to buy time in order to make US and Saigon social programs more appealing to the villagers, to build an antiguerrilla force strong enough to discourage Communist attempts to seize the country militarily, and to allow the Vietnamese to achieve a settlement on their own.
The North Vietnamese did not show any interest in settlements they did not dictate, and they would not show, the President believed, until they were persuaded that aggression on their side would be opposed and unprofitable.
Kennedy increased the number of American advisors threefold, charging them with the task of assisting in conventional, as well as in unconventional, warfare.
Money and instructors were provided to the South Vietnam's Civil Guard, SelfDefense Forces, and army, Yet, throughout, the situation in the South continued to deteriorate, The area controlled by northern guerrillas grew bigger and bigger, and American instructors accompanying Vietnamese troops in battles were being killed in increasing numbers.
Many in the United States believed American troops were needed to boost the morale of the South Vietnamese, but Kennedy was reluctant to deploy American troops to fight Asians on Asian land "for speculative psychological reasons.
" He recognized far better than most of his advisers that military action alone would not save Vietnam, However, his efforts to balance the military and political role of the USA was severely hindered by the State Department's inability to compete with the militant Pentagon.
No plans for social and economic aid were developed, While there was a rural alleviation program, the Communist guerrillas kept much of the countryside too frightened and therefore hostile to cooperation
by slaughtering health and educational workers and burning schools and government centers.
"You cannot carry out a land reform program if the local peasant leaders are being systematically murdered," complained Secretary of Defense McNamara.
Thus, American assistance always failed to address the internal reforms that would have made it effective, And John F. Kennedy, who fought his battle against hawk Secretary of State Dean Rusk, McNamara, and Joint Chiefs of Staff, on his own, could do little about that.
This short book offers a graspable, insightful analysis of how Kennedy's Vietnam policy was shaped by his predecessor, the Communists, and the ColdWarrior mindset of the American government.
It confirms in a well argumented way the point of view several other authors I have read express on the same question.
How close were we to fullscale war in Vietnam when Lyndon Johnson succeeded to the presidency inWhat course might Kennedy have followed had he not been assassinated What effect did the Bay of Pigs debacle have on America's involvement in Vietnam What was Kennedy's responsibility for later disaster These and other tough questions are examined headon in this farreaching book.
Detailing the roles of Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, General Maxwell Taylor, and Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge in helping Kennedy to reach decisions political and military, Kennedy in Vietnam offers a new perspective on an underinvestigated period during America's most troubling war.
Balanced, exhaustively researched, revealing many hitherto unknown documents, here is an account which clearly establishes Kennedy's involvement and the extent to which his successors must be held accountable.
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