John F Kennedy's Involvement In The Vietnam War

McMaster also talked about how president Johnson believed that he would be able to control the U.S involvement in vietnam and part of that belief is based of of McNamara's confident assurance. (McMaster 333) Because of Lyndon B John secret decision made in Washington between November 1963 to July 1965, he got the United States deeper and deeper into the war. President Johnson also believed that it would be possible to preserve American credibility even if the U.S armed force withdrew from Vietnam (McMaster 332). He was totally wrong. “After the United States become committed to the war, however, more American soldiers, airmen,... had died in the conflict, it would become impossible simply to disengage and declare America’s credibility intact…”

However, in 1970, Nixon started Vietnamization, that involved withdrawing 540,000 US troops from South Vietnam over a period of time. It also included South Vietnam taking responsibility of fighting their own way by giving them American money, weapons, training. In 1971, a man by the name of Daniel Ellsberg from the New York Times published the Pentagon Papers, a secret history of the war. These papers claimed that the U.S had been involved in large scale bombings in Laos and Cambodia as well as raiding the the coasts of North Vietnam.

Subsequently, not being satisfied with the actions that were being taken by President Dwight David Eisenhower’’s administration, in the 1960’s presidential election, the American electorate elected President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, a first-term Senator from Massachusetts over the incumbent Vice President of the United States of America under President Dwight David Eisenhower: Vice President Richard Milhous Nixon. A lecture from POSC 458 - the Vietnam Wars seems to indicate that Vice President Richard Milhous Nixon’’s poor performance in the first televised presidential debates could have been just as consequential if not more, than a rejection of President Dwight David Eisenhower’’s policies towards the Vietnam War by the voters as television

Still, though Kennedy did have huge influence on the legislation, other external factors such as his legacy and president Johnson were influential. Kennedy’s death was of huge help for the bills ratification, as Johnson used it as an excuse to honor the gone President. It was this and his maneuvering of the south democrats and congress what made the authorization possible, as the congress had not passed the bill when Kennedy was alive. It would have taken

In 1963, Lindon B. Johnson inherited the White House from John F. Kennedy as well as the Vietnam War. Johnson vowed to not lose the war as he saw a Communist Asia would form if he failed to act correctly. When the counter insurgency in Vietnam began to fail, due to the Diem Coup, Johnson immediately increased America’s political and military presence in Vietnam. While being fully aware of the reports and documents he was given, he decided to intentionally mislead Congress as well as the public on America’s position in the war. Johnson and his administration knew that entering the war would be expensive and consuming, but they had motives to do so anyways.

In 1962, the United States was in the middle of the Vietnam War and fresh out of a recession. Things were definitely not going very well when, all of a sudden, steel prices rose by almost 4 percent. Then President, John F. Kennedy, was very incensed by the sudden decision and wrote a very passionate speech about it. In his speech he talks about the irresponsibility of steel companies, using rhetorical devices to argue his points. He uses the points in his speech to convince his audience that rising steel prices are not in their best interest.

In addition to general exhaustion from war, the American people wanted to focus on domestic equality before moving forward with global equality and democracy. Anti-Vietnam War protests were not necessarily unwarranted, as the anti-democracy Tet Offensive of North Vietnam resulted in the deaths of thousands of American soldiers, with the vast majority of states reporting over 100 war casualties in 1968 alone. (Document E) Economically, the Vietnam War was challenging to manage, as the department of defense budget once again rose to today’s equivalent of 450 billion dollars, adding to an already quickly growing, massive national debt. (Document G)

A. Plan of Investigation This investigation will assess the effectiveness of Nixon 's Vietnamization Policy of the Vietnam war to end U.S. involvement. The scope of my research will assess the effectiveness of Nixon’s Vietnamization Policy to end the U.S. involvement during the Vietnam war, as well as the involvement of the women in the military, Nixon’s Doctrine, and the new economic policy that caused the end of the U.S. involvement of the Vietnam war between 1945-1975. The methods to be used in this investigation will be primary and secondary sources historical textbook in search of Nixon, 1972. This investigation will evaluate the effectiveness of the new economic policy In Search of Nixon: A Psychohistorical Inquiry.

“I thought the Vietnam war was an utter, unmitigated disaster, so it was very hard for me to say anything good about it” - George McGovern. There are numerous controversial topics dispersed among the subject of American history due to the amount of unethical decisions that have been made in order to improve the lives of the people or keep America out of the clutches of war. Throughout American history, historians have debated the ethical impact that the Vietnam war had on the United States. Although some people may believe that the Vietnam War achieved the goal of avoiding communism and protecting the people, the overarching idea is that it was an unjust war because of the countless lives that were lost from the participating countries, the

Johnson’s decisions in Vietnam are complex and debated about to this day. Johnson was left with this issue from Kennedy and as a strong proponent of the Domino Theory he believed that going to war with Vietnam was the right decision. The Vietnam war would devolve into disastrous policy and resulted in the loss of life of numerous Americans. However, while his decisions were disastrous he recognized that a continuation of his presidency would only seek to divide the country more.

President Kennedy believed in containment and in the Domino Theory, but he did not believe in it to the point of waging unending war against communism in vietnam. Kennedy actively pursued a way to leave Vietnam, and a way of maintaining american influence, through financial support and training. He wanted all american personnel of vietnam. During Kennedy’s term in office, there was no open warfare in Vietnam and the united state’s involvement in the war was limited. Kennedy 's strategy was to bring the Northern vietnamese down through strategic bombing and limited ground attacks.

Increasing opposition to the war was causing major division amongst the American people, and many feared that Vietnam could potentially see a victory. This war was by far one of the most unpopular wars to the American people that ended with the withdrawal of the United States, and the unification of Vietnam under Communist rule.

The following events would put him in a disadvantage. In August 1964, North Vietnam allegedly attached American ships in the Gulf of Tonkin. Congress authorized he president to use force, he did. In 1965 President Johnson ordered the bombing of North Vietnam.

Kennedy, was a major part in the disaster in Vietnam. During the time period, it seemed highly controversial to go to war against such a small and insignificant place in the world. This may be viewed as one of the biggest mistakes in American history. I personally believe that if Kennedy wasn't assassinated he would have been able to pull us out of Vietnam faster than Johnson did. I think he would learned a great amount from what became a huge mistake and tore the country apart.

The Kennedy-Johnson years (1961-1969) provided the stimulant for social and economic re-form, but most of their policy initiatives were confounded by domestic strife and foreign policy failure. Discuss. The 1960s heralded a period of both social and economic change as both John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson attempted to continue the legacy of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s ‘New Deal’. However, “competing domestic and foreign policy constituencies” stymied some of their efforts at reform therefore whilst in many cases their policies stimulated reform in later decades much of their energies in the 1960s were focused overseas.