Kennedy's Vietnam Policy

This really isn't my specialist subject, but I would minimise his Catholicism in the discussion, accentuate domino theory, and bring in the threat/failure in Cuba.

Here is a very brief (list formatted) summary

John F. Kennedy in 1961 was faced with a 3-part crisis- the Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba, the construction of the Berlin wall by the Soviets and an agreement signed between the Laos government and the Pathet Lao communists

This seriously threatened to undermine U.S credibility being able to contain communism

Kennedy feared another blow to stop communist expansion would be fatal to his administration and so he chose Vietnam as the place in which the United States would re-affirm its credibility

However critics question whether monolithic world communism ever really existed citing the Sino-Soviet split as evidence to support their argument

Linked to this is the long-term influence of ‘Domino Theory’. This speculated that if one state in a region fell to communism others would follow immediately afterwards. Therefore in the eyes of the United States, Vietnam under no circumstances could be allowed to follow China in falling to communism, for fear that the surrounding countries of Cambodia, Laos and Thailand would follow suit

Thanks for that! I think McCarthyism would also be a good point - Kennedy didn't want to go soft on the Communists in Vietnam in case he got accused by McCarthy. Thanks again!

Be careful talking about McCarthy himself as he died in 1957, McCarthyism itself is focused a lot more on American domestic politics, as opposed to foreign policy.

The point in which McCarthyism could be included, is that Kennedy is likely to have been much warier about the actions of the Pathet Lao Communists, the Vietminh and the Chinese

However there is a case to be made that beyond the right-wing of American politics McCarthyism never really took hold, therefore the impact is limited

Didn't realise he'd died before Kennedy was even President! I guess I could try and argue that McCarthyism increased Kennedy's opposition to Communism during his time as Senator...? I see what you mean about it being more for the domestic politics.

Thanks so much for this!

Hey not sure if you still need it, but I did the exam this year and this is from some of my notes:

The National Security Action Memorandum 52 (NSAM 52) of May 1961 committed the USA to counter the communist threat and accelerate US involvement in Vietnam through political involvement (sending political advisors), economic involvement (providing financial support) and military involvement (providing advice and hardware) Now I'll talk about how successful this strategy was.
~~~~~
How did Kennedy increase the USA's military involvement?
- Kennedy formed the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) to coordinate military aid
- Kennedy initiated Operation ranch Hand, spraying thousands of acres of forests with defoliants and pesticides in order to remove the VC (Viet Cong)'s cover and destroy their food supplies
- Kennedy increased the number of military advisers:
- 1960: 800 advisers
- 1961: 2000 advisers
- 1962: 12,000 advisers
- 1963: 16,000 advisers
- Kennedy sent Special Forces (the Green Berets) to train the ARVN (Army of republic of Vietnam) (US-supporting Vietnam 'south' troops)
- Kennedy authorised the deployment of US troops to perform reconnaissance missions to assist the ARVN
- Kennedy authorised the deployment of US helicopters to support ARVN troops (ARVN troop

How successful was Kennedy's military strategy?
- The strategic hamlets failed to stop the Viet Cong because they were easily infiltrated by Viet Cong agents
- US military aid was unable to stop an escalation in the civil war
- The Battle of Ap Bad (January 1963) demonstrated the failings of Kennedy's strategy as ARVN troops, equipped with US weapons and outnumbering the Viet Cong four to one, were still unable to win a military victory.
- The herbicides used by the US, including Agent Orange, are believed to be responsible for hundreds of thousands of cases of cancer and birth defects that later struct the Vietnamese and US servicemen
- US advice was sometimes ineffective and sometimes ignored
- US military aid was ineffective in combating the Viet Cong

~~~~~~
This is only the Military successes and actions that kennedy took, if you still need it, I can post the other half of this, which is about Kennedy increasing the USA's political and economic involvement and how successful those strategies were.

Hope I helped and am not too late!