And here comes jt to pull the discussion off course, and away from the slops suppression of free speech with one his ridiculous posts. BTW slick, a Republican (Nixon), ended the war.
1. Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961)
Following the French defeat in the First Indochina War and subsequently the Geneva Accords leading to a partition of Vietnam, President Eisenhower decided to support anti-communist leader Ngo Dinh Diem in consolidating power in the South.
In September 1954, he created the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) in an attempt to block communist spread to Southeast Asia. SEATO essentially put Vietnam under its protection, which later became one of the major justifications for the U.S. intervention in Vietnam during the Vietnam War.
In February 1955, President Eisenhower sent the first American military advisors to Vietnam to help build up Diem’s army. When Diem announced the formation of Republic of Vietnam (later known as South Vietnam) in October 1955, Eisenhower immediately recognized and offered military and economic assistance to the new nation. In fact, the MAAG Vietnam was reorganized from MAAG Indochina in November 1955 to train South Vietnamese Army.
In July 1956, Diem under the U.S. support refused to participate in the unifying elections. The Eisenhower administration believed that the communists could have won the elections thanks to the popularity of their leader Ho Chi Minh, which was an unacceptable outcome for the U.S.
Eisenhower pledged his continued support for Diem during Diem’s 10-day visit to the U.S. in May 1957 and remained committed to Diem’s government throughout his second term as president. As a matter of fact, he increased the number of U.S. military advisors in South Vietnam to around 900 men by 1960 owing to North Vietnam’s growing support of “uprisings” in the south.
2. John F. Kennedy (1961-1963)
John F. Kennedy was an ardent believer in containing communism and “Domino Theory”. In his first speech as President in January 1961, Kennedy made it clear that he would continue the policy of the former President, Dwight Eisenhower, and support the government of Diem in South Vietnam.
Kennedy also pledged more aid and military advisors to help train South Vietnamese Army. As a matter of fact, the U.S. provided $65 million in military equipment and $136 million in economic aid to Diem’s government by 1961.
During Kennedy’s presidency, the Strategic Hamlet Program introduced by Diem and supported by the U.S. failed terribly, and as a result, drove a large number of South Vietnamese peasants into supporting the Viet Cong. In fact, the number of Viet Cong increased tremendously by 300% to 17,000 in just two years when the “Strategic Hamlet” was in operation. In response, Kennedy significantly increased U.S. military advisors in South Vietnam to 16,000 by 1963 compared to just 3,200 in 1961.
Kennedy’s presidency also saw Diem’s repression of Buddhists after their public protests throughout South Vietnam owing to his religious favoritism and discrimination.
As corruption, Buddhist crisis, and mounting successes by the Viet Cong weakened Diem’s regime and threatened the stability of South Vietnam, Kennedy became convinced that Diem could never unite South Vietnam to fight against the Viet Cong. On November 1, 1963, Kennedy tacitly approved a coup to overthrow Diem just three weeks before his assassination.
3. Lyndon B. Johnson (1963 – 1969)
After assuming the presidency, Johnson was keen to continue supporting South Vietnam to fight against the Viet Cong. In the beginning, Johnson hesitated to commit U.S. troops to Vietnam as he was aware that U.S. military intervention might have an adverse impact on his chance of winning the 1964 election. In fact, during his campaign for President in 1964, he pledged not to send “American boys” to Vietnam and that South Vietnamese Army had to fight to protect its country.
But then came the the Gulf of Tonkin incident. In response, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution on August 7, 1964 authorizing President Johnson to take any necessary measures against North Vietnam.
Soon after Johnson won the 1964 presidential election by a landslide, he ordered a sustained bombing of North Vietnam called “Operation Rolling Thunder”, which lasted for more than 3 years (March 2, 1965 – November 1, 1968). He then sent the first combat troops to South Vietnam in March 1965 in response to a Viet Cong’s attack on U.S. air base in Pleiku.
During his presidency, Johnson constantly increased the number of U.S. troops deployed to Vietnam, which peaked at more than 500,000 in 1968. Despite mounting U.S. casualties as well as massive nationwide protests against the draft and conflict in Vietnam, Johnson refused to bring the troops home stating that he did not want to become “the first American President to lose a war.”
By the end of his second term as president, his approval rates plunged to an all-time low as the end of the Vietnam War was nowhere in sight after the Viet Cong’s Tet Offensive. On March 31, 1968, at the height of the Vietnam War, Johnson announced he would not seek reelection.
In May 1968, Johnson announced formal peace talks would soon begin in Paris. The talks stalled during the last eight months of Johnson’s presidency, and the deadlock continued during the early years of Nixon’s administration.