On 12 Jun 2004 19:28:28 GMT, (QDurham) wrote:

Kennedy inherited the failed foreign policy and Johnson ran with it.

The first president to support that war was Harry Truman. He provided a US
airlift to move French troops back into "French Indo China" when the Japanese
lost the war and moved out. Every subsequent president escalated that
miserable goddam war -- some lots, some less. The biggest escalator was Nixon
-- but who conversely and eventually got our ass out of there.

(Apparently the French blackmailed HST to get the support. "If the USA won't
help us retake our colony, we won't join NATO.")

Quent

Some fact so far, and some chronological inaccuracies.

First, while John F. Dulles, SecState to Eisenhower, ennunciated the
"Domino Theory", it was simply a continuation of the policy of
containment. Containment originated with George F. Kennan's "Mister X"
dispatches back to Harry Truman after the end of WW II. He postulated
(correctly) that communism was an inherently faulty system and would
eventually collapse of its own problems. All we needed to do was
contain it rather than confront it. This idea led to the Truman
Doctrine which was that the US would oppose the expansion of communist
regimes anywhere in the world.

To achieve containment, the US established alliances around the world
to oppose communism. Among them were SEATO, CENTO and the longest
lasting, NATO. The problem, of course, was that in resisting communism
we inevitably wound up supporting dictators, corrupt democracies,
monarchs, etc.

As for France "blackmailing" HST. Let's note that NATO was formed in
1949 and the French didn't withdraw until after Dien Bien Phu in
1954!!! Truman left the White House in '52. France had already been in
NATO for a lot of years before they withdrew let alone harbored
aspirations to retake Indochina. The Geneva Accord that led to the
breakup of Indochina into Laos, Cambodia, N & S Vietnam was 1954.

As for Nixon being the "biggest escalator"--He was elected in 1968,
taking office in Jan '69. The highest troop numbers came in '68 and
bombing of the N. was halted in the fall of '68 by Johnson. Nixon's
initial policy upon taking office was to commence Vietnamization--the
drawdown of US troops. By his election to a second term in '72, we
were down to about 150,000 troops remaining in-country.


Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
Smithsonian Institution Press
ISBN #1-58834-103-8