Thank you, Lyndon Johnson and Robert McNamara.
“Thank you, Lyndon Johnson and Robert McNamara.”
Don’t leave out JFK.
He managed to get RSVN President Diem assassinated in November 1963 leaving Vietnam rudderless and unable to form a stable government, much less to defend itself.
This played a big role in LBJ’s decision to send in American combat troops.
Actually, JFK gets plenty of blame.
http://www.csmonitor.com/1991/1119/19182.html
“Khrushchev,” writes Reston, “had treated Kennedy with contempt, even challenging his courage, and whatever else Kennedy may have lacked, he didn’t lack courage. He felt he had to act.” Soon thereafter Kennedy sent more advisers to the battlefront in Vietnam. “This, I thought,” Reston continues, “was a critical mistake. Once Kennedy had over 15,000 ‘advisers’ engaged not only in giving advice but also in giving support on the battlefield. US power and prestige were thought by many officials in Washington and in Asian capitals to be committed.”
Thank you Johnson and McNamara indeed. When that Edsel promoting sob McNamara finally admitted that he and Johnson were not in it to win it but only as a holding operation that put me in a permanent rage about those two Remember “proportionate response”? Damn them both to Hell