With these defiant words, John F. Kennedy seemed to be spelling out his position on American policy toward the Vietnam War during his inaugural address on 20 January 1961. However, it is questionable whether or not he maintained this conviction throughout his brief stint as this nation’s leader. Throughout Kennedy’s term in office, evidence points to the fact that he initially felt strongly about staying the course with the policies handed down to him by the Eisenhower Administration; yet later he began to indicate his desire to pull away from total American support of this continued involvement in Vietnam. However, before he could take final action on whatever his decisions were, John F. Kennedy was killed; and Lyndon B. Johnson became president, thus placing the war policy in his hands. Rather than pulling back American forces from Vietnam as it seemed the Kennedy Administration may have intended, Johnson escalated the American commitment to this war transforming it from an internal Vietnamese civil war to America’s fight against communism. Perhaps, however, the Kennedy Administration intended to secure South Vietnam’s status as a democratic state. If America had backed out of Vietnam, then it would have demonstrated to its allies that it only cared about its own internal affairs and that preserving worldwide democracy was not the priority that Kennedy alluded to as he took office. It is hard to say if things would have been different had Kennedy not been assassinated and remained in charge of America’s foreign policy. His reaction to the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, which was a major cause for the war’s escalation, can only be assumed as he never had to face the dilemma. Although the Johnson Administration took the Vietnam War to a new
Bibliography: Beck, Kent M. "The Kennedy Image: Politics, Camelot, and Vietnam." The Wisconsin Magazine of History 58, no. 1 (Autumn 1974): 45-55. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4634927 (accessed April 27, 2010). "John F. Kennedy Inaugural Address - Friday, January 20, 1961." In Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States. Washington, D.C.: U.S. G.P.O.: for sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. G.P.O., 1989. http://www.bartleby.com/124/ (accessed April 29, 2010). Lerner, Mitchell. "Four Years and a World of Difference: The Evolution of Lyndon Johnson and American Foreign Policy." The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 107, no. 1 (July 2003): 68-95. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30239425 (accessed April 27, 2010). McAdams, John. "Context: Kennedy and Foreign Policy." Vietnam War: The JFK Assassination Context. http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/context1.htm (accessed April 27, 2010). "National Security Action Memorandum 263." Vietnam War: The Documents - 14. http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/viet14.htm (accessed April 27, 2010). "National Security Action Memorandum 273." Vietnam War: The Documents - 16. http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/viet16.htm (accessed April 27, 2010). "President Eisenhower 's News Conference, April 7, 1954." In The Pentagon Papers, 382. Gravel. Vol. 1. Public Papers of the Presidents, 1954. Boston: Beacon Press, 1971. http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon/ps11.htm (accessed April 29, 2010). "The U.S. Army in Vietnam: Background, Buildup, and Operations, 1950-1967." In American Military History: The United States Army in a Global Era, 1917-2003, edited by Richard W. Stewart, 285-331. Vol. II. Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History United States Army, 2005. http://www.history.army.mil/books/amh-v2/amh%20v2/chapter10.htm (accessed April 27, 2010).