During the early 1960s, the U.S. military presence in Vietnam escalated as concern grew over the divisive policies of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem.
After World War II, the French tried to re-establish colonial control over Vietnam, the most strategic of the three states of formerly French-governed Indochina (Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos). Following the defeat of the French, Vietnam was partitioned by the Geneva Accord of 1954 into Communist North Vietnam and South Vietnam, which was non-Communist, but divided on religious and political lines. The United States supported a military government in the South and the decision of its leader, Ngo Dinh Diem, to prevent free elections which might result in the unification of the country under the control of the Communists. The Geneva Accord began to crumble as a result of attacks by guerilla forces supported by the Communist government of the North in an effort to take over South Vietnam.
American foreign policy after World War II had been based on the goal of containing Communism and the assumptions of the so-called "domino theory”—that if one country fell to Communism, the surrounding countries would fall, like dominoes. The Eisenhower administration was concerned that if Vietnam fell under Communist control, other Southeast Asian and Pacific nations, including even the Philippines, would fall one by one. In response to that threat, the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) was formed in 1955 to prevent Communist expansion, and President Eisenhower sent some 700 military personnel as well military and economic aid to the government of South Vietnam. The effort was foundering when John F. Kennedy became president.
Internal corruption, divisiveness, and mounting successes by the Vietcong guerrillas weakened the South Vietnamese government of Ngo Dinh Diem. Attempted coups and public protests over repression of Buddhists (Diem was Catholic), the major religious group in South Vietnam, threatened the stability of Diem’s regime. Kennedy accelerated the flow of American aid and gradually increased the American military advisers to more than 16,000. At the same time, he pressed the Diem government to clean house and institute long-overdue political and economic reforms.
The situation did not improve. In September of 1963, President Kennedy declared in an interview, “In the final analysis, it is their war. They are the ones who have to win it or lose it. We can help them, we can give them equipment, we can send our men out there as advisers, but they have to win it, the people of Vietnam, against the Communists... But I don't agree with those who say we should withdraw. That would be a great mistake.... [The United States] made this effort to defend Europe. Now Europe is quite secure. We also have to participate—we may not like it—in the defense of Asia.”
A few weeks later, on November 1, 1963, in a coup given tacit approval by the Kennedy administration, the South Vietnamese government was overthrown. President Diem, refusing an American offer of safety contingent upon his resignation, was assassinated. Please visit our webpage, Vietnam: Diem, the Buddhist Crisis, and a Proposed Coup to learn more about the events leading up to the 1963 coup.
In the final weeks of his life, Kennedy wrestled with the need to decide the future of the United States’ commitment in Vietnam. Whether or not Kennedy would have increased military involvement in Vietnam or negotiated a withdrawal of military personnel still remains hotly debated among historians and officials who served in the administrations of President Kennedy and President Lyndon B. Johnson.
United States military aid to Vietnam increased during 1964. By 1965, President Johnson authorized combat troops to take part in offensive military action and began the systematic bombing of North Vietnam. By 1968, U.S. forces surpassed 500,000, and by the 1968 presidential election, Americans had become deeply divided by the deteriorating military and political situation in Vietnam.
In May 1968, President Johnson announced that formal peace talks would soon begin in Paris. These peace talks stalled during the last eight months of Johnson’s presidency, and the deadlock continued during the first 3-1/2 years of Richard Nixon’s presidency. Finally, in January 1973 an agreement was reached, and President Nixon ordered an end to all U.S. offensive actions against North Vietnam.
In January, 1975, North Vietnam began massive invasions of South Vietnam. A few months later, the North Vietnamese captured Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, and the last Americans were evacuated from the U.S. embassy. The American war in Vietnam was over. More than 3 million Vietnamese and 58,000 Americans had lost their lives.