Commitment Trap

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

As mentioned earlier, J. F. Kennedy was providing the Vietnamese government with advisors. He started with the initial 400 U.S. military counselors and the number was raised to 16,300 American military advisors after his assassination. A communist takeover was to be prevented and that is why Kennedy supported Diem and his brother's government.

During Eisenhower Presidency he sent U.S troops to go fight in the Vietnam War. Although he was criticized for sending troops he did what was necessary and Vietnam needed our help. America was afraid Vietnam would turn into a Communist country so that’s why he helped to prevent communism and to isolate it, but we failed.

President Kennedy followed after President Eisenhower, but by that time, it was too late for the United States to back out of the conflict, too late to stand down, too late to prevent unnecessary destruction. By the time Jack entered office, it was do-or-die hardline policies, the line in the sand had to be drawn he said. And with this line drawn in the sands of Vietnam as we sank ever deeper, never realizing that this was

The United States played a very crucial role in the conflict that occurred in Southeast Asia between the U.S.-backed democratic South Vietnam, and Soviet-backed communist North Vietnam. Following the defeat of its French administration in 1954, North Vietnam, led by Communist leader Ho Chi Minh, wanted to reunify the country with the help of its rebel allies in the south, known as the Viet Cong. Out of this chaos emerged a difficult situation for the United States, as Cold War sentiments were present within this proxy war between the two powerful nations and the third party of Vietnam. The United States wanted to support Ngo Dinh Diem, leader of South Vietnam, in order to ensure his government would not fall into ruins and be taken control by the communists, but President Eisenhower was also hesitant to get his troops involved in this large scale conflict in Southeast Asia.

When Richard Nixon first became president he switched responsibilities to South Vietnam. The increasingly unpopular war had created deep divisions in American society as it was this, only made it worse. Nixon believed that this strategy of Vietnamization would help to bring Americans home and for the South Vietnamese to be able to fight communism on their own. He slowly withdrew

The history of the Vietnam War had a violent beginning. Before the assassination of President Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson had little to no involvement in the Vietnam conflict. Beforehand the United States had mainly sent supplies and aid to South Vietnam against North Vietnam. After the assassination of both president Kennedy and the President of South Vietnam, the war became inevitable.

While Kennedy was in office Kennedy he agreed to help Diem regime during his term in 1961. Kennedy sent more advisors and soldiers were sent to South Vietnam. In 1963 Kennedy tacitly approved an operation to overthrow Diem about three weeks before his assassination.

Despite US efforts Vietnam was not totally successful against pro-Communist. By 1963, faced with a catastrophe, “Kennedy was convinced that he had to choose between his own destiny (and reelection) and the interests of Vietnam.” The US was forced to increase their military involvement from approximately 800 to 16,000 and provide additional resources and advisors, but they maintained their position to not intervene with troops. Kennedy had no intentions of abandoning the cause he felt was his hope for a second term. After meeting with his advisors and facing reality it was clear to the Kennedy Administration that Diem was incapable of running the government and it was time to take action. The course of action was to encourage a coup to overthrow President Diem. However, there was confusion within the camp because not everyone agreed this was the correct choice of action. Did the tactics used to solve problems by the Kennedy administration cause the US to move forward when in fact we should have remained still?

However, Nixon added on to the losses in the war and the continuing of it for four more years. Even though Nixon had an agreement with Johnson not to do anything that would result in the undercut of the United States position, he went ahead and did it anyway. Nixon did not want Johnson to receive all the glory for stopping the ongoing war in Vietnam when his term was at its final days. Nixon received information from Richard Allen on the progress of the peace talks and made sure to convince Diem that they were not in his best interest. Nixon convinced Diem he’d come up with a better negotiation, Diem would only have to wait a couple weeks until Nixon was elected president. By the end of Johnson’s presidency he failed to end the war because

John F. Kennedy was elected in the middle of the Vietnam War and the Cold War. The country had a very low morale at that time so Kennedy made calls to action to stir the American people’s patriotism. To make peace and end war the people have to support the government. Kennedy wants to end the Cold War but the American people hated the Soviets. He

In the book Overthrow: America’s Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq, author Stephen Kinzer argued the many events that led to America’s long term failure of “regime change” in Iraq. I believe that the most compelling case for Kinzer’s argument of long term failure for the United States has to be when America tried to overthrow the leader, President Ngo Dihn Diem, of Vietnam whilst we were aiding the country. Even if America thought that getting a new leader would be better in the war against North Vietnam. This case was different than the others. For example, instead of just targeting person or a movement, the United States was targeting the leader of Vietnam during the time where America was aiding them in the way. In turn, when President John F. Kennedy and his advisors were together for a final meeting to overthrow Diem, Kennedy never gave a clear decision. Three days later, President Ngo Dihn Diem was murdered. This, of course, caused controversy and a major dilemma between Vietnam and the United States and eventually led to a strain between the two

In a speech given to the American people in 1969, Richard Nixon explained how and why America had associated itself with Vietnam to begin with. Nixon first stated, “Fifteen years ago North Vietnam, with the logistical support of Communist China and the Soviet Union, launched a campaign to impose a Communist government on South Vietnam by instigating and supporting a revolution” (Nixon’s ‘Silent Majority’). Nixon continued in saying that because the South Vietnamese government requested it, President Eisenhower offered military and monetary assistance to aid the South Vietnamese resistance against Communism. Then, in President Kennedy’s term, he ordered 16,000 military directors to be sent over to Vietnam. Additionally, when Lyndon B. Johnson was elected president, he commanded that American military troops be sent over to South Vietnam. Therefore, Nixon took office at the height of the war in Vietnam (Nixon’s ‘Silent Majority’).

Vietnam War goes down to be one of the most traumatic wars in American history. Among many of the American citizens have argued about the real reason and cause for the start of the Vietnam War. John Prados states what he believes to be the true cause of the Vietnam War was done solely by the hands of one important president. “President John F. Kennedy got the United States into the Vietnam War by

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