JFK and Diem

JFK and Diem

1. Kennedy

   • `Born to a wealthy, Democrat Irish Catholic family living in Boston, Massachusetts
   • Graduated from Harvard, wrote the bestselling Why England Slept, which criticized British unpreparedness for war
   • Joined US navy
   • Ran for congress and won
   • Criticized Truman for losing to Communism
   • Elected president in 1960 due to his families popularity and Cold War views.
   • Unsuccessfully tried to other throw the left wing leader of Cuba "Bay of Pigs"
   • Made Khrushchev back down over the Cuban Missile Crisis
   • Signed nuclear test ban treaty
   • Assassinated in 1963
   • ○ Assassinated in 1963 Created greater military intervention in Asia
   • What did JKF inherit/what did he do?
     • Rise of NLF and Ho Chi Minh trail threatening South Vietnam
     • Billions of $ given to Diem but he was losing control of the countryside
     • Civil war in Laos between communists and non communists. The USA and USSR were supplying aid to rival sides
     • Another Geneva conference established a coalition of communists and non communists working together in a neutral government in Laos. In practice the Ho Chi Minh trail continued to run through Laos and Kennedy responded by using the CIA to support anti-Communists without consulting Congress
       • Laos
         • Meant to be independant but there was a civil war between the goverment and the Pathet Lao, creating a new proxy war
         • Accord's formed a coalition goverment between commuists and non communists
         • Coalition failed and war restarted in 1963
         • By 1967 67,000 NV soldiers were in Laos
         • Overall the accords were not sucessful as they only postboned the war
       • South Vietnam
         • By 1961 Diem’s regime was in danger of collapsing. The Vietcong had control of much of the countryside.
         • Kennedy decided to send more advisors and aid to Diem, whilst resisting calls by McNamara to deploy US troops on a large scale
         • Success? Not really, Diem continued to lose control of the countryside and remained hugely unpopular
       • Soviet and British observers were skeptical that the US would be able to solve the problems in South Vietnam
       • The Sino-Soviet split was developing by 1963 and Russia was worried that escalation of the conflict would lead to either Chinese or American domination of the region. Consequently they gave more aid to Ho Chi Minh
       • America resisted all peace talks until the Vietcong had been crushed which could give them a stronger negotiating position. The problem was that they and Diem were finding the NLF difficult to defeat. Peace negotiations before this were an option, but against the 'doctrine of credibility' so JFK refused talks.
     • Bombing of eastern Laos in 1962/3
     • By autumn 1962 it was estimated that Diem controlled only 49% of South Vietnam while the NLF controlled 9% of the nation - mainly in the countryside
     • Kennedy had been elected on tough anti-communist promises. Becomes president in 1961
     • Believed in domino theory
     • Gave Vietnam higher priority than previous presidents. Thought the third world would be the next Cold War battleground.
     • Fear of communism outweighed sympathy for nationalism
     • Strongly religious so he opposed the godless idealism of communism
     • What were the presures that Kennedy faced?
       • Thought third-world Asia and Africa would be the new area for the cold war
       • Took only advice from hawkish advisors like McNamara and Rusk
       • Kennedy wished for America's reuptuation as leader of the free world to continue
       • More agressive foreign policy such as NSC-68
       • JFK was sensative to accuasations of him being a young and weak leader.
   • Evaluation
     • Successes
       • Didn’t commit any US ground troops to fighting in Vietnam and resisted pressure from the Defence Department to do so
       • You could argue Kennedy also was a victim of the commitment trap, left unable to pull out by Eisenhower’s policies of aid and advisors to Diem
       • In Kennedy’s defence it would have been hard to walk away from Indochina given US economic interests and the Cold War situation
       • Attempted a diplomatic solution in Laos – though it didn’t succeed in the long term
     • Faliures
       • Escalated US involvement through increasing aid ($1.2 bn per year to Diem) and advisors (800à17,000)
       • • Created the ‘commitment trap,’ made it impossible for Johnson to pull out of Vietnam after this escalation and the assassination of Diem, an episode that damaged America’s reputation
       • • The situation got worse in South Vietnam during Kennedy’s presidency, with the Vietcong controlling ½ the country by 1963
       • Failed to get Diem to introduce any social or democratic reforms
       • • Flexible response policies (Strategic Hamlets, Napalm, Agent Orange) lost the hearts and minds of the South Vietnamese people

2. Diem's goverment in 1961

   • Received $7 billion in US aid between 1955-61
   • By 1961 US was increasingly exasperated with Diem. One US official described Diem as "a puppet who pulls his own strings - and ours as well".
   • Some US officials continued to support Diem, they viewed the fight against communism in military terms and ignored the abuses of Diem's government (religion, terror, corruption, lack of land reform)
   • Unsuccessful coup against Diem in 1960. USSR and PRC wasn’t clearly backing Minh at this stage in the same way the US was backing Diem. In 1957 the USSR even suggested both Vietnam's be admitted to the UN.
   • Vietcong support was extreamly high
     • Push factors
       • The brutality of the Diem regime and the lack of democracy in South Vietnam.
       • The Diem regime persecuted the religious majority for the religious minority
       • The fact that Diem was a puppet was a massive push factor
       • Lack of land reform
     • Pull factor
       • Many Vietnamese saw the US as an imperialist force to fight against
       • Promise of the creation of a democratic coalition government, including an increase of democratic liberties
       • Promise of economic reform and allow displaced North Vietnamese to return home.
       • Promise of land reform
       • Creating a government free from foreign interference, military and economic
       • Creating a government free from foreign interference, military and economic
       • Fear of Vietcong/NLF
   • Diem's assainination
     • Cause
       • Diem’s persecution of Buddhists and failure to carry out land or democratic reforms made him widely unpopular
       • The army generals, e.g. General Duong Van Minh weren’t loyal to Diem and desired power
       • The Americans gave their backing for the coup against Diem
     • Course
       • The CIA helped the South Vietnamese army general plan the coup against Diem and his brother.
       • The CIA gave $42,000 for the plan
       • The Americans promised not to try to protect Diem
       • Kennedy knew about the plot at the time, but didn’t act to defend Diem. Other Americans like Henry Cabot Lodge endorsed the plot Diem’s government was overthrown on 1st November 1963.
       • Diem and his brother were captured on 2nd November and shot
     • Conseqeuence
       • The communists were surprised by the assassination of Diem and the backing of the USA.
       • A series of unstable governments followed Diem’s assassination, none lasted very long or gained any popularity
       • The assassination made South Vietnamese leaders look like supporters of colonialism and lackeys of the USA
       • The assassination morally locked America into conflict – they couldn’t abandon South Vietnam after agreeing to Diem’s murder
     • Did it help the US?
       • Diem’s corrupt and unpopular government had greatly increased support for the Vietcong, they had 170,000 fighters by mid 1964
       • The governments that followed Diem were short lived military dictatorships that were no better than Diem’s government
       • The generals that succeeded Diem only lasted 3 months. In January 1964 there was another coup and the new military ruler General Khanh lasted 1 year – meanwhile the Vietcong was growing

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