JFK: Policies and actions

JFK: Policies and actions

1. Theories for continued involvement

   • Stalemate: Presidents knew that they could not achieve a military victory in Vietnam but each president did also not want to be the first US president to lose a war (Just like Truman lost China). This is supported by Gelb and Betus
   • Quagmire: Each president felt that they could resolve the situation but with each step they became more entangled not less, so much so that they couldn't get out. This is favored by Arthur Slezenger
   • The commitment trap: Each president did not want to change the policy of their predecessor otherwise they would face the accusation of being 'soft on communism'. This was supported by Michael Lind.

2. Kennedy's reasons for involvement

   • Anti Communism
     • Truman had lost China so they wanted to make sure that they did not lose the rest on Indochina
     • Domino theory: couldn't let them fall to communism or others world follow
     • McCarthy red scare: public opinion favored involvement
     • He believed that they should be contained, unlike Eisenhower who favored rollback
     • Stalemate theory: did not want to end up like Truman and China
   • US Credibility
     • Emerges in 1945 as a superpower and one of the big three
     • Stalemate theory: not lost a war in 200 years and JKF did not want to be the first
     • They couldn't allow Ho to succeed as they thought he was a puppet of the Kremlin and therefore a loss of Vietnam would be a USSR victory (cold war)
     • 1949: NATO against communism, maintain credibility and Stalin responds with the Warsaw pact
     • Cuban missile crisis: it was humiliating as missiles were fired 80 miles from Florida
   • Advisers
     • He relied on advisers like the Secretary of defence Robert Mcnamara and the Secretary of State Dean Rusk.
     • Mcnamara studied stats rather than focusing on the people, encouraged ground troops and bombing (Johnson), didn't think strategies through and was a cold war warrior
     • Rusk was an anti communist and had never visited Vietnam
     • JFK was young and inexperienced and so needed to rely on advisors
   • Failure in Cuba and Laos
     • Cuba: unsuccessful in the bay of pigs in 1961. This shows evidence of the commitment trap as Eisenhower had planned it
     • Cuban missile crisis: Cuba was a threat to America and it worsened the relationship between Krushchev and JFK
     • Laos: it was held back by the bay of pigs as there were not enough soldiers for military intervention. There was a coalition government in 1962 that included the communists and it eventually fell to communism
     • Because JFK had failed with both it proves the domino theory is true and makes Vietnam an opportunity to prove himself
   • JFK Character
     • 'great crisis make great men
     • He was catholic so Diem was a natural ally
     • McCarthyism: JFK's sister dated Joseph McCarthy
     • 1956: 'communist system itself is the enemy...godless tyranny'
     • JFK was young and so had much to prove
   • Inherited policy and actions of predecessors
     • Commitment trap: didn't want to undermine Eisenhower and Truman
     • Quagmire theory: each president gets more involved until they can't get out
     • Truman: by 1950 $100 million given to France and called the communists 'terrorists' in the Truman Doctrine. He favored containment and gave $15 billion to the Marshall Plan (give aid to European economies after WWII
     • Eisenhower: Gave $7 billion, 1500 military advisers, financed Dien Bien Phu (80%), $385 million worth of arms. He didn't sign the Geneva accords and so made the US become a guarantor of the independence of South Vietnam. The 1956 elections were prevented as Ho would've won (80%) and Vietnam became more important in foreign policy

3. Kennedy's actions

   • Situation by 1962
     • Growing unease in the USA about the competence of Diem as he only controls 49% of Vietnam
     • These concerns were then confirmed in the battle of Ap Bac in January 1963 which was an opportunity for the ARVN to show how the US intervention was making a difference, or it could alternatively show the PLAF how the economic aid and military assistance would not make a difference to the ARVN
   • The Battle of Ap Bac
     • 320 strong Vietcong (NLF) battalion could not be defeated by 3000 ARVN force which was supplied with US weapons and trained by advisors
     • Significance
       • The US began to question Diem further
       • Increased unease in the US media
       • Colonel Vann (US army) concluded that the ARVN had no chance of defeating the PLAF
       • The ARVN were unable to defeat the VC guerilla warfare
       • Showed the determination of the VC and that they were not going to give up
   • Strategic Hamlets
     • Why were they introduced?
       • Kennedy had not yet committed to sending in ground troops and this offered a less directly interventionist route for US support. This offered low level support without military intervention
       • The Cuban missile crisis in 1962 saw a growing threat of communism and a solution therefore had to be found
       • Diem was becoming increasingly more unpopular and they needed an effective way of solving this
       • The immediate threat came through the VC rather than the North Vietnamese army and the hamlets would deprive them of their means of support
       • There was a need for social and economic reforms and the hamlets were an opportunity for reform
       • In 1949 the agrovilles were similar as they forced the relocation of peasants to army protected villages however they achieved little success as the ARVN forced them to move