Why did Kennedy escalate involvement in Vietnam?

**Mr Farndon** Mon Nov 09, 2009 5:22 am

Why was it that Kennedy increased the number of US military personnel in Vietnam from 1000 to 16,000?

Ignorance?
Idealism?
The actions of Diem?

Something else?
Express your opinion and make sure that you support it with relevant evidence and explanation.

Anthony Roberts Mon Nov 09, 2009 7:46 am

kenedy esculated involvment in Vietnamn due to his personal beleifs with the fact that he didnt belive in the way of Communisum. However he also didnt want to get involved straight away as he wasnt sure on the current situation so he had to send in people to find out the resource3s they needed and how much.

Harry Pierpoint Mon Nov 09, 2009 10:10 am

I believe that Kennedy decided to increase the amount of military personnel in Vietnam as a result of the large concerns over Diem's leadership in the South.

It is evident that Diem was not a strong leader of South Vietnam; he was not seen by the US as an ideal figurehead to secure the country from the clutches of Communism. Diem was often anxious to make decisive actions when needed and was sensitive to any forms of criticism; such as in 1962 when he expelled many journalists for highlighting his flaws.
Diem also lacked the support from a majority of citizens in Vietnam since the most prominent religion was Buddhism. They may not have agreed with Diem’s Catholic views or questioned his leadership.

There was more internal problems including the rise of an anti Diem coalition named the National Liberation Front, which had strong communist views. Kennedy would have certainly worried that South Vietnam could face a political uprising if Diem could not keep his control of the country. The US still maintained the policy of containment towards Communism so Kennedy would want to protect South Vietnam from internal threats and also from the threat of invasion from North Korea or China.

To finalize I believe that Kennedy increased the military personnel in Vietnam as a safety net to maintain a capitalist control over South Vietnam and to be stationed in case of a future conflict arising in the country.

Joe :-D Mon Nov 09, 2009 10:26 am

There are many reasons for Historians to argue to why Kennedy increased the amount of troops sent into Vietnam. For one it could be his own ignorance, Kennedy had lack of knowledge of Vietnam, or should i say that the knowledge he did have was largely influenced by bias (due to it coming from an unreliable source, Kennedy's military advisors) they are surely going to say that Kennedy should send more troops, due to their current state in the Government. On the other hand Kennedy could have been following his pure ideology that he wanted Vietnam to be a democratic state but be run by America from a distance and discretely. There is lot of evidence to back up each arguement to why Kennedy sent more troops in, but at the end of the day all that matters is that he did send more troops in, and this action, inevitably led to the Vietnam war, and some may say even to Kennedy's assassination.

:-D

Peace out. cherry

Stefan Constantinou Mon Nov 09, 2009 1:28 pm

Kennedy escalated the involvement of the US in Vietnam due to many different factors. However, in my opinion, the most significant factor was the fact that Diem wasn't a successful leader whatsoever as he couldn't gain support of the people within South Vietnam and that his government was entirely unstable. When considering that Diem was the only person from preventing South Vietnam from becoming Communist, Kennedy had to do something in order to prevent this from happening.

By 1963, it was clear that Diem wasn't a confident or bold leader of South Vietnam and could not be trusted by the US to be only the person in preventing a Communist takeover. Not only did Diem struggle to gain support where the majority are Buddhists, but he also created confrontations as he prohibited the use of the Buddhists religious flag and banned them to celebrate an annual Buddhist festival. It was inevitable that conflicts were going to be produced against Diem's regime from these laws. This illustrates how clueless and inexperienced a leader Diem was on how to deal with the issues he faced.

Kennedy must have been thinking at the time that if Diem continues like this, there was bound to be a political and military insurgency against Diem's government and therefore edging ever closer to South Vietnam becoming a Communist state as the Viet Cong were also continuing to recieve aid from the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Therefore it is evident that the reason that Kennedy escalated the involvement of the US in Vietnam was because of Diem's actions and the manner in which he was dealing with the internal issues within South Vietnam.

Warren Mon Nov 09, 2009 1:37 pm

Kennedy was quite ignorant when it came to Vietnam. He was massively anti-communist but wasnt too sure of all the facts, which is why he sent many advisers into vietnam. He also manipulated the press and the public by attempting to fool them into believing that it wasnt a US war when it quite clearly was.

Ryan HEaly Tue Nov 10, 2009 1:42 am

Kenedys intense anti communist views and fears about a repeat of ww2 where Hitler was given as much space and time as he needed to invade and set up by Britain and other european powers were two of the primary concerns of Kenedy. This combined with a multitude of other factors influenced his desicion to send more troops to Vietnam. The non communist dictator of south vietnam at the times plummeting popularity and failure to deal with the communist insurgents in the south of the country led directly to a set of circumstances in which Kenedy viewed the position of south vietnam as to fragile and to integral to the survival of free indo china to not send military aid in the form of troops.
The alterante explanation of Kenedy actions in Vietnam is that he was simply ignorant of the anti coloialst sentiments among the Vietnamese populace and was blinded by an ignorant fear of the spread of communism, and various people pushing him towards war for other reasons such as profit in the case of private defence companies operating for the Us military.
Overall it is my conclusion that Diem was the root cause for Kenedys desicion since his failure to stop the spread of communism directly led to Kenedys fears for the fall of Vietnam.

jamhughes Tue Nov 10, 2009 1:25 pm

i beleive that the reason Kennedy icreased military personnel in Vietnam was due to both his ignorance and his idealism.

his idealist views were very strong as he was an outspoken anti-communist. this would make him want to containg the threat of invasion and communist idealogy spreading. from this we see that his idealist views made him increase the military as he would want to put an end to the communist threat by forcing them out of the country. we also see how he sent Johnson to scout and check their opponents before rushing and facing the unknown.

i also think that Kennedy was ignorant of the strength of his opposition and underestimated them. this can be seen through how they were later embarassed and defeated in the battle of Ap Bac. we can also see his ignorance as he took advice from a clearly biased source(Johnson) to begin his attack. this shows his ignorance as he was so ready to begin his assualt he didnt check the state of Vietam himself.

Very Happy