Kennedy
Advisors
JFK with his principal Vietnam advisors: Sec. of Defense Robert McNamara and Sec. of State Rusk
Vice President Lyndon Johnson meeting with Ngo Dinh Diem in Saigon in 1961.
An American advisor and ARVN troops in the Mekong Delta
An American military advisor gives instruction in close quarter combat.
Americanization ď Ž
ď Ž
An American military advisor teaching a young South Vietnamese youth some of the finer points of baseball. The effort at teaching American culture had little impact.
Americans and the War in Vietnam ď Ž
ď Ž
Believe it or not, American involvement in the Vietnam War, was popular with the American people when Kennedy first increased the U.S. involvement level. Seen in the light of the Cold War and the necessity to have containment, the official doctrine towards communism, and with fears of the Domino effect in Southeast Asia, it made sense to the American people to become involved in the conflict.
The Military Viewpoint
The American military did not view it that way. The U.S. Military correctly viewed the Vietnam conflict as a civil war that would be disastrous to become involved in. Fighting the guerilla war that the Viet Cong was waging would be difficult and bloody.
Strategic Hamlet Program ď Ž
Started in 1962, with Kennedy having increased the American presence from 700 to 12,000, the Strategic Hamlet Program was designed to prevent the spread of the influence of the Viet Cong in South Vietnam.
Diem is overthrown on November 1, 1963
Mutinous South Vietnamese generals overthrow, with the blessings of the U.S. government, the corrupt Diem regime. 21 days later Kennedy is assassinated. By year’s end 15,000 American troops are in Vietnam and over $500 million in aid has been provided to South Vietnam.