Presidents in the Vietnam War

Eisenhower 1953-1961 Eisenhower was the first president to go head first into the Vietnam conflicts. Eisenhower did not support the Geneva Accords signed by France and Vietnam in the summer of 1954. The Accord made the 17th parallel dividing the country of Vietnam to north and south section until two years when they would hold a free election for all of the country. Eisenhower and his secretary of state John Foster Dulles believed that the agreement gave the communist too much power in the north. Instead Eisenhower decided to create the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO). This treaty’s purpose was to stop any more communist influence in Southeast Asia. Using the SEATO as a cover, Eisenhower started to help build a new nation in South Vietnam. In 1955 GVN was born, the government of the republic of Vietnam, the image 1leader being Ngo Dinh Diem, after a landslide election.

Soon after Diem claimed his country was under attack from communist. In 1957 the Vietnam War began. Diem imprisoned all those he viewed as being suspected communist and his people became outraged, administering protest and demonstrations.

From 1956-1960, North Vietnam did all it could to put political pressure on Diem’s regime, gathering followers in the south to overthrow him. Since the false imprisonments it was not hard to rally rural areas in the south. This was how the National Liberation Front (NFL) was created. Kennedy 1961-1963 By 1961 Kennedy was now in office and he had a new team to investigate the conditions in South Vietnam. This investigation was known as the “December 1961 White Papers”. The content in the white paper was basically a cry for more aid to Vietnam. Kennedy decided to send more advisors and machinery but would not send troops. In 1963 Kennedy put his support into a Portrait of Lyndon B. Johnsoncoup. Diem and his brother were killed. Three weeks later Kennedy was assassinated. Lyndon B. Johnson 1963-1969 This was the president in office when the Gulf of Tonkin attack occurred. Two U.S ships were attacked off the coast of Vietnam in neutral water. The first attack was legitimate but no one knows if the second actually occurred. Johnson decided to use this situation as a chance to cover up the resolution that gave Johnson more war powers. This was called the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. The resolution was a series of air strikes against the North Vietnam territory. In 1965, the NFL attacked U.S. bases in South Vietnam and Johnson ordered a bombing mission called Operation Rolling Thunder. Johnson was the one who sent the first combat troops to Vietnam. Johnson’s hope was that the North Vietnam would get tired of the war and want peace talks. The draft was instituted and anti-war movements reached an extreme. Protests on campuses erupted everywhere, Kent State being one of them. In 1968 the North Vietnam army led a series of attacks against major cities in South Vietnam known as the Tet Offensive, to force American to the bargaining table. Although South Vietnam and American forces pushed the North Vietnam army out of the cities, it was still a political loss to America and South Vietnam. Johnson left his office when time was up in disgrace. Making it known he will not accept the democratic renomination. Richard Nixon 1969-1974 Nixon claimed he had a secret plan to the war and won the election. He used a process called “Vietnamization”. This was a method of training the South Vietnam troops to fight and then slowly pulling American troops out of Vietnam. During Nixon’s years the war was brought into Cambodia and Lao to try to find pockets of communist along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

Finally a peace talk emerged but South Vietnam would not settle. Leaving the North Vietnam to intensify its position this was retaliated by the “Christmas Bombing”. In January 1973 a peace treaty was signed ending the war for Americans but not for South Vietnam. North Vietnam took over the south after the American troops left putting an end to the Vietnam War. Vietnam War - US troops during the war in Vietnam in 1966.