Thursday, September 29, 2011

Session Three: Deepening Involvement: Eisenhower to Kennedy I. U.S. decision making during the Battle of Dienbienphu A. French Army Chief of Staff Paul Ely visited Washington, D.C. on March 23, 1954 to ask for additional American aircraft and a U.S. military intervention. 1) Eisenhower wanted French participation in the European Defense Community (EDC) and a French guarantee to grant Indochinese independence. 2) A series of NSC (National Security Council) meetings took place. a) Admiral Arthur Radford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: no direct intervention, just air power. b) Matthew Ridgeway, Army Chief of Staff, also opposed direct intervention. Unfavorable battle conditions. c) Ely misunderstood Radford and thought 350 planes would be sent from the US aircraft carrier in the Gulf of Tonkin ("Operation Vulture"). 3) At the NSC meeting of April 3, 1954: rift between Secretary of State John Foster Dulles who had wanted "united action" (intervene militarily with the British), and Admiral Radford, who advocated unilateral armed intervention. a) Ike conferred with Congress. Eight Congressional leaders adamantly opposed any more "Koreas" with US giving 90% of the manpower. b) Congress as a whole had 3 provisions: 1) any intervention must be multinational and include Asians; 2) France must agree to stay in the war; and 3) there should be guaranteed future independence of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia without any hint of colonialism. c) Earlier in 1954, Ike opposed the Bricker Amendment, which would have limited the president's power to enter into executive agreements with foreign powers without Congressional approval. Might have intervened in Indochina without conferring with Congress if he had thought it wise. B. French were finally defeated on May 7, 1954. C. The Geneva Conference (April-June 1954) 1) Nine nations involved in the wars in Asia gathered in Geneva, Switzerland to find permanent peace settlements for Korea and Vietnam. 2) Two key decisions were made at Geneva: a) ceasefire agreement signed and a partition line drawn at the 17th parallel, roughly dividing Vietnam in half; and b) In two year (in July 1956), free elections would be held for Vietnamese unification. a) North Vietnam had most of the industry and minerals. b) Vietnamese thought it unfair. They had soundly defeated the French and should have sovereignty over a unified Vietnam now, not two years from now. 3) The Eisenhower Administration did not sign the Geneva Accords. Had only a team of "observers." Did not approve Vietnamese unification because of fear of spread of communism. "Domino theory."

a) However, Walter Bedell Smith read a statement giving U.S. endorsement of the principle of a free election and pledged not to interfere with its implementation. b) 1954-1956: US assisted migration of Vietnamese Catholics from North Vietnam to the south. Secretly sent in Colonel Edward Lansdale to help the Vietnamese, rather than the French, in unconventional warfare. D. The Eisenhower Administration tried to create in the south a nationalist, but anticommunist alternative to Ho Chi Minh's government in the north. 1. Chose Ngo Dinh Diem, a devout Vietnamese Catholic who had lived in a seminary in New Jersey. 2. Supported Diem when he refused to hold elections in 1956. Ike thought 80% of Vietnamese population would vote for Ho Chi Minh. 3. However, Diem's authoritarianism and Catholicism alienated many Vietnamese. They also hated Diem's brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu (head of the secret police) and his wife, Madame Nhu. E. By the end of the Eisenhower administration in January 1961, a full-scale insurgency was taking place in South Vietnam led by the National Liberation Front or NLF. Its guerrilla fighting forces: the Vietcong ("VC"). F. John F. Kennedy and his advisors agreed with Eisenhower: we must prevent a communist victory in south Vietnam. 1. Sent in more military advisors and special forces ("Green Berets") to train the South Vietnamese army. 2. Fall, 1961: General Maxwell Taylor and presidential advisor Walt W. Rostow traveled to South Vietnam. Urged sending in combat troops. Kennedy refused. 3. Kennedy ordered covert operations against North Vietnam, incl. commando raids against North Vietnamese coast. 4. Ordered bombing in South Vietnam and in Laos, focusing on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. 5. Started "strategic hamlet" program to separate peasants from guerrillas. Alienated the peasants by forcing them to leave their traditional villages. 6. By 1962, number of US military advisors grew from 900 to 9,000. 7. Battle of Ab Bac (January 1963): Vietcong repelled a much larger ARVN (South Vietnamese military) force that had superior firepower. 8. Summer of 1963: Buddhist monks joined the anti-Diem forces. Public self-immolation. Shocked American public. 9. November, 1963: CIA gave the green light to South Vietnamese military officers to launch a coup against Diem. November 1: Ngo Dinh Diem and Ngo Dinh Nhu shot. The assassination had left a power vacuum in south Vietnam. 10. November 22, 1963: John F. Kennedy shot in Dallas, Texas. By then: more than 16,000 "advisors" in south Vietnam.