Posted on 11/01/2013 4:56:58 AM PDT by Nextrush
CHET HUNTLEY: In respect to our difficulties in South Vietnam. could it be that our government tends occasionally to get locked into a policy or attitude and then finds it difficult to alter or shift that policy?
PRESIDENT KENNEDY: Yes, that's true. I think in the case of South Vietnam, we've been dealing with a government which is in control, has been in control for ten years. In addition, we have felt for the last two years that the struggle against the Communists was going better however since June however the difficulties with the Bhuddists, we've been concerned about a deterioration, particularly in the Saigon area, which hasn't been felt greatly in the outside areas, but may spread. So we are faced with the problem of wanting to protect the area against the Communists on the other hand we have to deal with the governments there. It produces a kind of ambivalence in our efforts which expose us to some criticism. We are using our influence to persuade the government there to take those steps which will win back support. That takes some time and we must be patient, we must persist....
NBC's Huntley Brinkley Interview September 9, 1963
The stage for the increasingly difficult struggle with the Communists in Vietnam was set in 1955 when the world powers including the United States and Soviet Union agreed to the establishment of a Communist state in North Vietnam.
This happened when France was failng in its war effort against the Communist insurgency and the United States was unwilling to commit its military forces to help.
Communist North Vietnam used its new status as an independent nation to promote insurgency in the rest of Indochina to spread Communism.
The United States started to commit larger numbers of military advisors to help the regime of Ngo Dinh Diem in South Vietnam.
In the summer of 1963 Diem declared martial law and began cracking down on Bhuddists and by the fall the Kennedy Administration was ready to support a coup by South Vietnamese military officers.
The situation was embarrassing to the Kennedy Administration since it felt that in fighting Communist expansion image was very important and Diem's action was presenting a bad image.
There was contact between coup plotters and the US government through CIA operatives and a 42 thousand dollar payment was made by a CIA officer to assist the coup.
US aid was cut off to the Diem government and on November 1st, the coup began. Diem was eventually captured and killed as the coup succeeded.
When news of Diem's death reached a White House meeting, observers said President Kennedy was shocked by it.
It was hoped that the change in government would get the conflict moving in a more positive direction but that would not be the case following John F. Kennedy's death.
In the end the standard operating procedure of the "Cold War" would continue under Lyndon Johnson's leadership with military action to oppose the Communists always being limited to defensive and policing type actions.
Maximum force that could achieve a military victory like an all out air war against the North Vietnamese Viet Cong supply line's head at Hanoi and Haiphong Harbor was not employed.
Soviet supplies easily moved off ships and into the pipeline to supply the Communist war effort.
A long and costly ground war would result in Vietnam driven by the notion that a large commitment of ground forces and surgical air strikes would drive the Communists to a negotiating table just as happened in the first post World War 2 "police war" in Korea.
A change in American public opinion after the Tet Offensive in early 1968 would force President Johnson to sue for peace talks with the Communists.
This set off a string of political and cultural events that led the Democrat party to be taken over by collectivists who hate America, and got us to the dangerous juncture at which we find ourselves today.
The first mass protest movement ahead of the Anti-Vietnam War one was already underway by this time in 1963, the Civil Rights one.
Each movement had its supporters and opponents who would be nudged into conflict with each other amid massive media coverage of the loudest and most noisy radical elements.
Vietnam War Ping.
Lesson Learned.
If the party you have sympathy for, is not willing to fight effectively (i.e. to the death) for itself; then they don’t deserve our sacrifice.
Supposedly said by Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.
One rebuttal to the shutdown the GOPES (gop Elite Snobs) running things could have been using when the demo-coms the DC’s, (they’ill never call the democrats either, they can’t even call them socialist) began propagandizing dire results for a government shutdown.
It would have been a perfect time to remind Americans how under the Democrats Viet Nam which became a defacto ward of the US under communist threat. from North Viet Nam. We supported their excursion into a democratic form of government. That was abandoned after a costly victory known as the TET offensive was portayed as a defeat by the the media and our support came to an ignominious end. Defunded by the very same democrats.responding to the academic socialist/ communists who today are now in control of that political party. Where hundreds of thousands of our supporters there died and 58,000 American lives were wasted because of our lack of political resolve..
Diem was no saint but he at least deserved safe protection out for his efforts to keep the Communists out of the government.
It was a dirty situation that would talked about for years with the lefties trying to get in their points about the evils of the CIA using covert activity and so on.....
Diem’s family was obviously hurt by this and expressed their feelings in the years ahead.
Fighting Communism and fighting Terrorism wasn’t or isn’t as straight and above board as World War 2 was.
Our leaders operate against them under the norms of “international law” and don’t declare war on enemies anymore. This means in the end more covert type operations like this one against Diem.
Look at what the Israelis have been doing to Iran in recent years because above boards ops would bring international law
down on them.
St. Jack gave the okay... Live by the sword, die by the sword.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.