Kennedy announces intent to increase aid to South Vietnam
In a public exchange of letters with South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem President John F.Kennedy formally announces that the United States will increase aid to South Vietnam which would include the expansion of the U.S.troop commitment.
Kennedy concerned with the recent advances made by the communist insurgency movement in South Vietnam wrote We shall promptly increase our assistance to your defense effort.Kennedys chief military adviser Gen.Maxwell D.Taylor and Special Assistant for National Security Affairs Walt W.
Rostow had just returned from a fact-finding trip to Saigon and urged the president to increase U.S.economic and military advisory support to Diem.The military support was to include intensive training of local self-defense troops by American military advisers.
Additionally Taylor and Rostow advocated a significant increase in airplanes helicopters and support personnel.In a secret appendix to their report Taylor and Rostow recommended the deployment of 8000 American combat troops which could be used to support the South Vietnamese forces in combat operations against the insurgents.To overcome Diems resistance to foreign troopswhich he saw as a potential Viet Cong propaganda windfallTaylor and Rostow suggested that the forces were to be called a flood control team.
Kennedy who wanted to stop the communists but also wanted to be cautious about the degree of involvement accepted most of the recommendations but did not commit U.S.combat troops.In return for the support Kennedy requested that Diem liberalize his regime and institute land reform and other measures to win the support of his people.Diem initially refused but consented when he was threatened with a reduction in the promised aid.
In the long run however his reforms did not go far enough and the increased American aid proved insufficient in stemming the tide of the insurgency.Diem was murdered during a coup by his own generals in November 1963.Shortly thereafter Kennedy was assassinated.
At the time of his death there were more than 16000 U.S.advisers in South Vietnam.Kennedys successor Lyndon B.
Johnson rapidly escalated the war which resulted in the commitment of U.S.ground forces and eventually more than 500000 American troops in Vietnam.
