February 12, 1955, 70 years ago: President Dwight D. Eisenhower sends the 1st U.S. "advisors" to South Vietnam. This comes 9 months after the Battle of Dien Bien Phu saw the Communist Viet Minh defeat the French Army, and 7 months after the Geneva Conference divided the country into a Communist North and a "free" South, just like Korea.
These "advisors" -- some of them U.S. Army officers, some of them CIA officers, some of them civilian diplomats -- were supposed to guide South Vietnam toward 3 things: Governmental stability, economic stability, and freedom.
To the American public, most of whom barely knew of Vietnam's existence in those early days of television -- "Indochina" was still the more common name, but that also encompassed Cambodia, Laos, Burman (now Myanmar), Thailand, and Peninsular Malaysia -- let alone could find it on a world map, freedom was the most important part.
But, in all fairness, it would have been a miracle if the country were stable enough to hold together, let alone enough to hold off attacks -- either military or spying -- from North Vietnam.
Since the Vietnam War finally came to an end in 1975, Republicans have usually blamed the American role in the war on President Lyndon B. Johnson, for the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in 1964 and his subsequent escalation of the war; or on President John F. Kennedy, who increased the U.S. presence in Vietnam in 1961, '62 and '63. JFK and LBJ were both Democrats.
These Republicans tend to ignore the fact that Republican Richard Nixon, after being elected President in 1968, largely on the basis of saying he would end the war, only took the last U.S. combat troops out after being sworn in for a 2nd term in 1973.
Let the record show that the 1st President to send U.S. troops to Vietnam was a Republican, Dwight D. Eisenhower. And his Vice President was Richard Nixon.
2 comments:
It's also interesting to note that Franklin Roosevelt was dead set against the European colonial powers returning to their Asian colonies, including France to Indochina, but Truman didn't share his views and was swayed by our European allies.
That the US might end up in Vietnam was known as early as the Korean War. Marines retreating into Hungnam from the Chosin Reservoir in December, 1950, had already adopted the British World War Two song with new lyrics by that time, which included:
So put back your pack on.
The next stop is Saigon.
'An cheer up me lads
Bless 'em all".
Also, it's easy to forget that Nixon was Eisenhower's VP. They don't seem like a natural fit.
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