John F. Kennedy

====Vietnam====
{{further|Presidency of John F. Kennedy#Vietnam}}
{{see also|Vietnam War}}
[[File:Press Conference, State Department Auditorium, JFKWHP-ST-C100-1-61.jpg|thumb|Kennedy speaking in a televised press conference on the situation in Southeast Asia, {{ca|March 23, 1961}}]]

During his presidency, Kennedy continued policies that provided political, economic, and military support to the [[South Vietnam]]ese government.{{sfn|Dunnigan|Nofi|1999|p=257}} Vietnam had been divided into a communist North Vietnam and a non-communist South Vietnam after the [[1954 Geneva Conference]], but Kennedy escalated American involvement in Vietnam in 1961 by financing the [[Army of the Republic of Vietnam|South Vietnam army]], increasing the number of U.S. [[military advisors]] above the levels of the Eisenhower administration, and authorizing U.S. helicopter units to provide support to South Vietnamese forces.{{sfn|Giglio|2006|pp=256–261}} On January 18, 1962, Kennedy formally authorized escalated involvement when he signed the National Security Action Memorandum (NSAM) – "Subversive Insurgency (War of Liberation)."{{sfn|Reeves|1993|p=281}} [[Operation Ranch Hand]], a large-scale aerial defoliation effort using the herbicide [[Agent Orange]], began on the roadsides of South Vietnam to combat [[Guerrilla warfare|guerrilla defendants]].{{sfn|Reeves|1993|p=259}}<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/07/agent-orange-cambodia-laos-vietnam/591412/ | title=The U.S.'s Toxic Agent Orange Legacy | publisher=The Atlantic | date=July 20, 2019 | access-date=May 13, 2023 | first=Charles | last=Dunst | archive-date=October 14, 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191014202833/https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/07/agent-orange-cambodia-laos-vietnam/591412/ | url-status=live }}</ref>

Though Kennedy provided support for South Vietnam throughout his tenure, Vietnam remained a secondary issue for the Kennedy administration until 1963.{{sfn|Giglio|2006|pp=256–257}} On September 2, Kennedy declared in an interview with [[Walter Cronkite]] of [[CBS News|CBS]]:

<blockquote>In the final analysis, it is their war. They are the ones who have to win it or lose it. We can help them, we can give them equipment, we can send our men out there as advisers, but they have to win it, the people of Vietnam, against the Communists... But I don't agree with those who say we should withdraw. That would be a great mistake... [The United States] made this effort to defend Europe. Now Europe is quite secure. We also have to participate—we may not like it—in the defense of Asia.<ref>{{cite web |title=50. Interview With the President |url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d50 |website=U.S. Department of State |access-date=November 12, 2023 |archive-date=November 12, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231112050354/https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d50 |url-status=live }}</ref></blockquote>

Kennedy increasingly soured on the president of South Vietnam, [[Ngo Dinh Diem]], whose violent [[Buddhist crisis|crackdown on Buddhist practices]] galvanized opposition to his leadership. In August 1963, [[Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.]] replaced [[Frederick Nolting]] as the U.S. ambassador to South Vietnam. Days after his arrival in South Vietnam, Lodge reported that several South Vietnamese generals sought the assent of the U.S. government to their plan of removing Diem from power. The Kennedy administration was split regarding not just the removal of Diem, but also their assessment of the military situation and the proper U.S. role in the country. Without the full support of the U.S., General [[Dương Văn Minh]] ("Big Minh") called off the potential coup. On November 1, 1963, a junta of senior military officers [[1963 South Vietnamese coup|executed Diem]] and his influential brother, [[Ngô Đình Nhu]].{{sfn|Giglio|2006|pp=262–268}}

By November 1963, there were 16,000 American military personnel in South Vietnam, up from Eisenhower's 900 advisors;<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.swarthmore.edu/library/peace/conscientiousobjection/OverviewVietnamWar.htm |title=Vietnam War |publisher=Swarthmore College Peace Collection |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160803124531/http://www.swarthmore.edu/library/peace/conscientiousobjection/OverviewVietnamWar.htm |archive-date=August 3, 2016 }}</ref> more than one hundred Americans had been killed in action.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.archives.gov/research/military/vietnam-war/casualty-statistics|title=Vietnam War U.S. Military Fatal Casualty Statistics|date=August 15, 2016|website=National Archives|access-date=January 30, 2024|archive-date=May 26, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200526173917/https://www.archives.gov/research/military/vietnam-war/casualty-statistics|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Track the rapid escalation of the Vietnam War under Pres. John F. Kennedy's administration |url=https://www.britannica.com/video/78017/John-F-Kennedy-number-Vietnam-Perspective-military |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=30 January 2024 |archive-date=January 30, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240130021951/https://www.britannica.com/video/78017/John-F-Kennedy-number-Vietnam-Perspective-military |url-status=live }}</ref> In the aftermath of the aborted coup in September 1963, the Kennedy administration reevaluated its policies in South Vietnam. Kennedy rejected the full-scale deployment of ground soldiers but also the total withdrawal of U.S. forces.{{sfn|Giglio|2006|pp=265–266}} Historians disagree on whether the U.S. military presence in Vietnam would have escalated had Kennedy survived and been re-elected in 1964.<ref>{{cite journal | first = Joseph J. | last = Ellis | title = Making Vietnam History | journal = Reviews in American History | volume = 28 | issue = 4 | year = 2000 | pages = 625–629 | doi = 10.1353/rah.2000.0068 | s2cid = 144881388 }}</ref> Fueling the debate are statements made by Secretary of Defense McNamara in the 2003 documentary film ''[[The Fog of War]]'' that Kennedy was strongly considering pulling out of Vietnam after the 1964 election.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1635958_1635999_1634954-5,00.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070628213900/http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1635958_1635999_1634954-5,00.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=June 28, 2007 | work=Time Magazine | title=Warrior For Peace | date=June 21, 2007 | access-date=March 1, 2012 | first1=David | last1=Talbot}}</ref> Kennedy had signed NSAM 263, dated October 11, which ordered the withdrawal of 1,000 military personnel by the end of the year.<ref name="NSAM 263">{{cite web |url = http://www.jfklancer.com/NSAM263.html |work = JFK Lancer |last = Bundy |first = McGeorge| author-link=McGeorge Bundy |title = National Security Action Memorandum # 263 |date = October 11, 1963 |access-date =February 19, 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160803124810/http://www.jfklancer.com/NSAM263.html | archive-date=August 3, 2016}}</ref>{{sfn|Dallek|2003|p=680}} Such an action would have been a policy reversal, but Kennedy was moving in a less hawkish direction since his acclaimed speech about world peace at [[American University]] on June 10, 1963.<ref name="AmUniv">{{cite web | url=http://www.american.edu/alumni/news/JFK-50th-Anniversary.cfm | title=Marking the 50th Anniversary of JFK's Speech on Campus | publisher=American University | access-date=August 2, 2016 | archive-date=August 19, 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170819231710/http://www.american.edu/alumni/news/JFK-50th-Anniversary.cfm | url-status=live }}</ref>