President Kennedy and the Vietnam War Essay

Kennedy’s structure of foreign policy was much different from Eisenhower’s foreign policy. During the Eisenhower years, America had a detailed national security structure, with a “massive retaliation” idea, while Kennedy was more informal, with his “flexible answer”, which I think fit his New Frontier model. After the rigid structure of Eisenhower, Kennedy and his advisors wanted a new, less formal way of dealing with international affairs. He was an activist, who was very popular with generations both young and old, and I think that he brought a new idea of informality to the way the White House worked. For example, he preferred to work directly with the officers in the Department of State, and he relied on his assistant for national security affairs, McGeorge Bundy, instead of the usual Operations Coordinating Board. In dealing with crises, and seeking advice, Kennedy had a small number of close advisors that were also his friends, one of which was his brother Robert Kennedy, the attorney general (Miller Center).

The Vietnam war has been referred to by many names, one of the longer ones was 'the cornerstone of the free world southeast Asia'. It was called that by John F. Kennedy. He was talking about Vietnam being and essential country in a non-communist world. He believed that if Vietnam became a communist country, all of the surrounding countries would also become communists. This is the main reason America was involved in the Vietnam war. Another reason was that America wanted to spread their “political ideas around the globe”. They wanted to do this so that their anti-communism stance was clear. The public also wanted to keep communism from spreading. To soldiers, the war was like a crusade, a great journey to purge the communists from Vietnam.

John F. Kennedy was the 35th president of the United States (1961-1963). He was born

America had a few reasons to be involved in the Vietnam War. The big reason was to fight communist power. Countries like North Korea, North Vietnam, Indochina, and parts of Asia were trying spread their communist aggression (Document 2a). In Document 2b, you can see that America wall out the communist aggression, but it just kept coming. The United States was involved in the Vietnam war because we had

On the 7th of April 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower gave one historic press conference [1]. In that conference, he announced his so called “Domino Theory”. It was a substantial aspect of the US involvement in the Vietnam War, involvement in terms of its military support and methods used in Vietnam. Even though it was greatly enhanced by other factors, such as the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, it was the trigger, and therefore the source of all US involvement in the Vietnam War. The main rationale of the theory was that if one country fell down to communism, all the surrounding countries would do the same, hence why it was called the ‘Domino’ Theory. Eisenhower thought that Vietnam’s fall to communism would lead to consequential communist uprisings in neighboring countries, such as Laos, Cambodia and Thailand. He also that that it could possibly extend as far as India, Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Australia and New Zealand -[1]. This gave The US enough motivation, and more importantly, justification as to why they greatly increased military presence in Vietnam. Eisenhower said, “The possible consequences of the loss [of Indochina] are just incalculable to the free world.” [2]. Even though the theory was imprecise, and only Laos and Cambodia joined communism after the US lost the war, it was significant as the foundation of the US involvement in the conflict.

Thomas G. Paterson grew up during the Cold War, even though he did not go into the army, he did research about the war while it was happening. The book Kennedy’s Quest for Victor American Foreign Policy 1961-1963 covers all of the aspect of Kennedy's foreign policy. Kennedy had foreign policies with 6 countries, Asia, Africa, Canada, Europe, Latin America, and Vietnam. The policy cover subjects like the atomic policy, Cuban Missile Crisis, Peace Corps, and economic policy. This source will help understand what Kennedy was going through with other countries when it comes to certain policies that I listed above. I believe this a secondary source.This books has quotes from people that were going through the Cold War. On the back of the book states

The politics of the ultratight resonated deeply with Richard Nixon. Nixon had cut his political teeth as a young Red-hunting member of the House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s. His home district in Orange Country, California, was widely known as a Birch Society stronghold. The Los Angeles-area Birch Society claimed the membership of several political and economic elites, including members of the Chandler family, which owned and published the Los Angeles Times. According to the writer David Halberstam (1979, 118) the Times, which was once described as “the most rabid Labor-bating, Red-hating paper in the United States,” virtually created Richard Nixon.

John F. Kennedy was born in Brookline, Massachusetts on May 29, 1917, the second of nine children. He was a US statesman and our 35th president. He came from a family with a history of good politics. As an infant he lived in a comfortable but modest frame house in that suburb of Boston. As the family got larger and the father's income and fortune increased, the Kennedys moved to larger, more impressive homes. Their first home was in Brookline, followed by the suburbs of New York City. John F. Kennedy had a happy childhood that was full of family games and sports. He attended many different private elementary schools, which were all non parochial. He later spent a year at Canterbury School in New Milford,

Kennedy was going to pull back on the Vietnam war: President Kennedy was going to get our troops out of Vietnam. He already had issued an order, NSAM 1093, that called for 1,000 military advisers to be called back home. The writer happens to have direct knowledge of this pull-out of troops. A very close associate, in the position to know, said that Sam Adams of the CIA research team, wrote a letter detailing what a grave mistake a conflagration in Viet-Nam would be. For the USA. Kennedy met with him a second time and Sam Adams felt that JFK was, in fact, going to get us out of this war. Robert Kennedy ran for president in 1968, believing the same thing as did his brother. LBJ's first act as president was to rescind NSAM 1093. There was too much money committed to this war. The Industrial Military Complex was now in

The Vietnam War was first derived from the gradual oppression of the communist party of the north over the region of South Vietnam. The North Communist party was supported mainly by China and the Soviet Union whiles the Anti-Communist party of South Vietnam was supported by United States and France. The communist party group, as known as the Viet Cong, was recognized for their guerilla war strategies within the region of South Vietnam, intended to fully expand and unify Vietnam under Communist rule. U.S. involvement with the Vietnam War starting in November 1, 1955, develops from the theory of the domino effect, stating that if one country falls into communism, a threat that can develop into the encouragement and spread of communism throughout the world in the future. It is basically viewed as a potential harm to the welfare of the United Sates. Therefore, due to the conflicting forces of the historical, political, economic and cultural nature of the war itself, it is known to be the longest enduring war in United States history that altered many lives of the Vietnamese and American community, leading to suffrage and acts of courage.

The conflict in Vietnam for the United States started when President Dwight D. Eisenhower went along with the domino theory and sent in military advisors in South Vietnam to stop the communist movement from taking place in South Vietnam. The Vietnam conflict was between the communist’s and the United States. North Vietnam was led by Ho Chi Minh, and Ho Chi Minh led the Viet Cong, a guerilla group to help spread communism. The United States were supporters of the South Vietnam because they wanted them to maintain their government rather than falling to the domino theory of communism. After Eisenhower’s term ended John F. Kennedy became president and took control of the situation of Vietnam but on November 22, 1963, Kennedy was

In the middle 1960s, every male in America had to register for Selective Service Draft at age 18. He would then be eligible for the draft and could be inducted into the Army for a period of two years. If you were a college student, you could receive a deferment and would be able to finish college without the fear of being drafted. However, once finished with college, a students name would be put to the very top of the draft list and could be deployed at anytime. The anti-war movement was about young men being drafted and then sent into war that most Americans did not believe threatened the security of the US. The Vietnam War was America’s rebellious war, a war without popular support

Vietnam has diplomatic relationships with 184 countries.  And is a member of the United Nations Security Council.  In 2011 at the 11th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam produced a statement about their foreign policy, saying how "Vietnam is a friend and reliable partner of all countries in the international community, actively taking part in international and regional cooperation processes.  Deepen, stabilize and sustain established international organizations while showing: respect for each other's independence; sovereignty and territorial integrity; non-interference in each other's international affairs; non-use or threat of force; settlement of disagreements and disputes by means of peaceful negotiations; mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit"(Vietnam).

After noticing that South Vietnam was on shaky ground, President Kennedy decided to send in a limited number of troops to aid Diem and his government. However, Diem began to lose popularity among his people and eventually he and his brother were assassinated. Three weeks after the deaths of these two leaders, President Kennedy was assassinated. President Lyndon B. Johnson decided more action needed to be taken in South Vietnam and, after two U.S. ships were destroyed in the Gulf on Tonkin, Johnson and his administration began to order air attacks upon the North Vietnamese (the U.S. referred to them as the "Vietcong"). Soon afterwards, the NLF attacked two U.S. army installations in South Vietnam and, as a result, Johnson orders bombing missions

---Fearing a communist takeover of the entire region, the United States grew more and more wary of the progress of Ho Chi Minh and the Vietcong. Communism had become the evil menace in the United States and with expansion of Soviet rule into Eastern Europe, Korea and