How Successful Was Kennedy's Leadership In The Vietnam War
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2. Investigation
John F, Kennedy’s leadership in the Vietnam War was not successful in containing communism in the region because, “In the end the United States and its ally South Vietnam lost the war”. (O’Brien 616). Reasons for the failure included: military and diplomatic strategies failing due to the unfamiliarity of Viet Kong war tactics, the lack of high level experts on Vietnam, strained relations with the USSR and because of domestic affairs.
The complications in Southeast Asia began with the idea of communism. General Secretary of the Soviet Union, Leonid Brezhnev set the initiative to expand communism to neighboring countries like Vietnam. He sparked revolution in Vietnam, encouraging the north to opt towards communism. This however went against American ideals, most notably, the Truman Doctrine, which was “the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures”. This would inspire both Eisenhower and Kennedy to further US efforts in Vietnam, They believed the spread of communism would threaten western interests. Robert McNamara,…show more content… Although fighting was ensuing in the region, under the leadership of President Richard Nixon. The duration of the war, the thousands of American casualties, and the distasteful involvement of the United States in war crimes such as the My Lai incident in 1968 led to Americans at home turning their backs on the war. The American people no longer wanted war. An official peace treaty was signed on January 27, 1973 by the United States, North and South Vietnam, and the NLF (Viet Cong). The fighting however would continue until in 1975, when Northern Vietnam would launch an attack. The United States Congress would deny South Vietnam’s requests for aid, and South Vietnam would collapse to communism. Vietnam was reunified in July of 1976. The war to communism had been lost in the