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Thread: Would John F. Kennedy have pulled US out of Vietnam?

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    Would John F. Kennedy have pulled US out of Vietnam?

    Would John F. Kennedy have pulled US out of Vietnam?

    In 1963 JFK's public statements on Vietnam suggested he fully supported the South while privately supporting a South Vietnamese generals' coup against Diem. Modern historians have searched the archives and suggest that JFK would not have surged in US forces and would have drawn down the 16,000 advisers in country. He was considering a way out when he made his trip to Dallas.

    It is a short read for those interested in this part of history.

    In the last weeks of his life, President John F. Kennedy spent a lot of time worrying about the rising foreign-policy problem of Vietnam.

    Whether he would have avoided successor Lyndon B. Johnson’s tragic escalation of US involvement in
    Southeast Asia remains one of the great “what ifs?” of 20th-century geopolitics.

    It’s possible he would have dispatched hundreds of thousands of US combat troops to the country, as did LBJ. Kennedy was a cold-war Democrat, meaning he was a committed anti-communist. His brother Robert Kennedy said in a 1964 oral history that JFK never thought about pulling out of Vietnam and was convinced the United States had to stand there against Soviet expansionism.


    Some modern historians think otherwise. The Cuban missile crisis had taught Kennedy to be distrustful of the hawkish advice of national security officials.

    Meanwhile, from the Oval Office in 1963, Vietnam looked like an unstable country in a far-off, roiling corner of the world.


    ****
    But Kennedy was already thinking about a second term – and its possible greater freedom of action. On Nov. 21, 1963, he told Bundy aide Michael Forrestal that at the beginning of 1964, he should organize an in-depth study of every Vietnam option, including means of withdrawal.

    “We have to review this whole thing from the bottom to the top,” Kennedy said, according to Dallek.


    That same day, he left for a political fundraising and fence-mending trip in Texas.

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    This is just something that we will never really know. Certainly it is easy to speculate or even believe he would have done this or that. But the truth is that it is rare for a president or politician to stay true to their promises to the people. But who knows, he seemed to be enough of a threat that he was assassinated, so who knows.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Just AnotherPerson View Post
    This is just something that we will never really know. Certainly it is easy to speculate or even believe he would have done this or that. But the truth is that it is rare for a president or politician to stay true to their promises to the people. But who knows, he seemed to be enough of a threat that he was assassinated, so who knows.
    I don't think the Vietnam issue factored into the assassination, at that point it seems Kennedy was keeping all options on the table. The paragraph above where he said all options on the table to include withdrawal was too soon to plan an assassination- that takes months.

    His threats against the federal reserve are more likely the source.
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    I don't think he trusted the S. Vietnamese rulers. I think he would have de-escalated. I spent my college days studying JFK. That was my conclusion then.
    Any time you give a man something he doesn't earn, you cheapen him. Our kids earn what they get, and that includes respect. -- Woody Hayes​

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    Quote Originally Posted by Peter1469 View Post
    Would John F. Kennedy have pulled US out of Vietnam?

    In 1963 JFK's public statements on Vietnam suggested he fully supported the South while privately supporting a South Vietnamese generals' coup against Diem. Modern historians have searched the archives and suggest that JFK would not have surged in US forces and would have drawn down the 16,000 advisers in country. He was considering a way out when he made his trip to Dallas.

    It is a short read for those interested in this part of history.
    Yes.....he would have caved to the Demo base and the Anti War activists and movement.
    History does not long Entrust the care of Freedom, to the Weak or Timid!!!!! Dwight D. Eisenhower ~

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    Quote Originally Posted by MMC View Post
    Yes.....he would have caved to the Demo base and the Anti War activists and movement.
    It seems he was more focused on US national interests and not the antiwar activists, who really weren't up and running at that point. The first demonstrations happened after JFK's death.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Peter1469 View Post
    It seems he was more focused on US national interests and not the antiwar activists, who really weren't up and running at that point. The first demonstrations happened after JFK's death.
    That's True, but the activists became prominent in 65. But the SDS was started in 1960. Students for a Democratic Society. They were espousing a Democratic Socialist vision and opposition to militarism.


    I guess if he would have been re-elected he wouldn't have had to worry about the base to much. Still a lot of Demos had flipped against the war.


    Don't forget the Demos lost the war after it had been won. Didn't even want to sign the treaty.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Peter1469 View Post
    I don't think the Vietnam issue factored into the assassination, at that point it seems Kennedy was keeping all options on the table. The paragraph above where he said all options on the table to include withdrawal was too soon to plan an assassination- that takes months.

    His threats against the federal reserve are more likely the source.
    I agree with you on this. I just meant an overall threat. Lots of reasons for taking him out. I have no idea which one caused them to carry it out. It could be his overall views, and actions.
    We are all brothers and sisters in humanity. We are all made from the same dust of stars. We cannot be separated because all life is interconnected.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Peter1469 View Post
    I don't think the Vietnam issue factored into the assassination, at that point it seems Kennedy was keeping all options on the table. The paragraph above where he said all options on the table to include withdrawal was too soon to plan an assassination- that takes months.

    His threats against the federal reserve are more likely the source.
    Driving past a nut job is more loikely the cause. The route was drawn in the newspaper and a nut saw he could kill him. That's all it was.
    Liberals are a clear and present danger to our nation
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    Quote Originally Posted by Captdon View Post
    Driving past a nut job is more loikely the cause. The route was drawn in the newspaper and a nut saw he could kill him. That's all it was.
    I don't think so. But this thread is about whether Kennedy would have pulled troops had he lived and won re-election.
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