Was Vietnam Kennedy or Johnson's War?

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Was Vietnam Kennedy or Johnsons War?

President Kennedy’s arrival in the white house in 1961 brought the democrats back to power in the US. After being accused of losing China to communism before, President Kennedy now took a hard-line anti-communist route in his campaign to stop the democrats facing similar accusations of being soft on communism this time around.  This can be seen in the fact that defence spending was increased from $40 million a year to $56 million, the number of nuclear weapons increased dramatically and there was a new emphasis on meeting subversive movements through the use of specially trained forces. These Special Forces became known as the Green Berets and were soon deployed in South Vietnam to give assistance to the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) as military advisors.

Under Kennedy, American policy was set out in a National Security Memorandum in May 1961 (NSAM 52). In this it committed the US ‘to prevent communist domination…and to initiate, on an accelerated basis, a series of mutually supporting actions of a military, political, economic, psychological and covert character.’ It is clear through Kennedy’s term as president that he had taken the US further into the Vietnam quagmire and it was getting harder for the US to contemplate withdrawal. In 1961 military aid for South Vietnam to expand the ARVN rose from $220 million to $262 million. There was less than 1000 US military personnel in South Vietnam when Eisenhower handed over to Kennedy in January 1961, and even this was a breach of the Geneva Accords of 1954 that stated there were to be no foreign troops in Vietnam. By the end of 1963 there were approximately 16,300 US military personnel in South Vietnam which shows growing commitment on part of the USA. On this aspect, the Vietnam War could be seen as Kennedy’s war as he did increase US commitment by involving more US troops and money; however he didn’t increase the numbers nearly as much as President Johnson did during his presidency.

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Although President Kennedy did increase US commitment towards South Vietnam during his presidency, he was reluctant to do so. It was his ‘hawk’ advisors like McGeorge Bundy who pressured Kennedy into believing a massive increase in aid and US personnel was needed in South Vietnam. Kennedy issued a lot of fact finding missions before he eventually agreed to step up intervention in South Vietnam but he did not want to include ground combat troops, although the number of trainers did increase dramatically and air support, flown by US personnel, was provided. On this account, the Vietnam War was not ...

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