President Kennedy's Involvement In The Vietnam War

Francesca Orr-Yepes
Mr. Mesic
F-Mod
April 30, 2016
The Vietnam War The Vietnam War was a long, torturous, and costly war. America had officially joined the war in the beginning of 1950. They were providing massive military and economic support to France during the French Indochina War, France’s attempt to control Vietnam. The military and economic support was provided by the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations. Before Kennedy’s death, he announced that he would try to remove the U.S. forces from South Vietnam. After Kennedy’s death, Lyndon Johnson came into office as the new President. His opinion’s and beliefs were opposite from Kennedy’s, as he continued to send large amounts of American troops to fight the South Vietnamese, wanting to

Ngo Dinh Diem was the president of South Vietnam who was an anti-communist. President Kennedy increased his financial aid to Diem to diminish the accusations of “soft democracy.” But before Kennedy was assassinated, he claimed that the war was “their war.” In the end, Kennedy wanted remove the troops from South Vietnam. Some Americans agreed with Kennedy’s path, to return home from war, but many others supported President Lyndon Johnson’s approach, to send more troops. By the middle of the 1960’s, more than 180,000 Americans were stationed in Vietnam. The Army of the Republic of Vietnam had stated that they, “cannot stand up to pressure without substantial U.S. combat support on the ground.” This statement caused Johnson’s administration to continue adding more and more troops to the war, leaving there to be about half a million soldiers stations in Vietnam by the end of the 1960’s. The war was becoming more expensive than it needed to be, causing the inflation rate to rise dramatically. By the end of 1967, Americans were split over opposing or supporting the war. Most opposers of the war was the youth of America, who made sure that their voices were

With the voice of the youth and more horrific battles, the war had ended, leaving Vietnam to a victory. By the end of 1969, President Richard Nixon was in office. He announced the first troop withdraw. Though he pulled out the troops, he still fought the war with Vietnam. By the beginning of the 1970’s, America’s growing social status and upcoming presidential election led to President Nixon’s administration to change the negotiation policy. All in all, more than 330,000 Americans were either killed or injured. The war left Americans more cautious about foreign affairs and more hostile toward the