Posted on 06/19/2014 11:35:57 AM PDT by Makana
In 1961, France's Charles de Gaulle told President John F. Kennedy that in Vietnam the U.S. would sink "step by step into a bottomless quagmire," however much it spent "in men and money."
President Kennedy had begun sending more advisors to Vietnam to help the Diem regime, increasing their number to 800 in 1961. Kennedy refused his military advisors advice to send combat divisions to Vietnam, but he increased the number of so-called advisors and aid to the Saigon regime.
(Excerpt) Read more at fsmitha.com ...
It's all horse hockey. Watch for the C-130s landing at midnight with the body bags.
Kennedy was mostly thinking about himself.
Why JFK picked Viet Nam. I believe it happened this way.
James "Scotty" Reston revealed this in 1966 IIRC.
The hapless Kennedy was savaged by Khrushchev in Vienna in 1961, especially over being chicken at the Bay of Pigs. So badly did JFK represent his Country that he asked for one more chance, a personal meeting with Khrushchev with only the two of them and two interpreters. JFK agreed to meet with Reston first after the meeting. This account is from, "Scotty," by John F. Stacks.
'How was it?' Reston asked casually.'Worst thing in my life. He savaged me,' Kennedy responded. The president seemed to Reston to be almost in shock, repeating himself and speaking with astonishing candor to the journalist. 'Not the usual bullshit,' Reston wrote in his notepad. 'There is a look a man has when he has to tell the truth.' Kennedy went on to say that to counter the battering by Khrushchev, which he attributed to the Soviet leader's underestimation of Kennedy's resolve, the United States would have to stand more firmly against the Soviets' demands in Berlin and against the mounting Communist insurgency in South Vietnam. Reston wrote later that he was 'speechless' when Kennedy mentioned Vietnam, since that troubled country was at that point nowhere near the heart of the Cold War conflict and, in Reston's estimation, did not carry much weight in the superpower tug-of-war. Ever afterward, Kennedy's remark to Reston was seen by historians and by Reston himself as the moment marking the beginning of America's long slide into the tragedy of Vietnam."
Yes sir, the JFK people took tens of thousands of Americans into war with the same "resolve" as they had at the Bay of Pigs.
Then LBJ took over caring more about his "Great Society" plans than any thing else including war -- fight the war but it must not in any way hinder getting his "Great Society." Lie, lie, lie whatever it takes. (see McMaster's. "Dereliction of Duty")
Just change JFK and LBJ with BHO; and replace VN & communism with Middle East & Islamism.
Just because the French got their asses kicked, as usual, in Vietnam, doesn’t mean the US couldn’t have taken the whole dammed country.
We were simply waiting for orders, which never came.
The author doesn't mention the chaos that followed. The Vietnamese would dub 1964 "The Year of Seven Coups."
Just because the French got their asses kicked, as usual, in Vietnam, doesn’t mean the US couldn’t have taken the whole dammed country.
We were simply waiting for orders, which never came.
“Obviously we could win in an afternoon but...”-Richard Nixon.
I was barely a teenager when I heard this on the radio. My contempt was supreme. Doesn’t matter much what he said after that.
Just because the French got their asses kicked, as usual, in Vietnam, doesn’t mean the US couldn’t have taken the whole dammed country.
We met every assigned objective. Unfortunately between the spineless politicians and the treasonous Media talking heads (howdy Walter Cronkite, is it warm where you are?) we were left hanging in the wind.
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