Customer center

We are a boutique essay service, not a mass production custom writing factory. Let us create a perfect paper for you today!

Example research essay topic: John F Kennedy And Vietnam - 2,322 words

NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote

John F. Kennedy and Vietnam Introduction Historically, John F. Kennedys policy in relation to Vietnam was trade on forbidden ground. Military and political aspects of the U.

S. intervention, along with the Vietnamese struggle against aggression were kept on the front-burner. However, less attention was given to formation, development, and implementation of the policy not only under the circumstances of global confrontation, but in the system of regional international relations. John F. Kennedy obviously tried to control the regions the U. S.

considered to be its sphere of influence. At the same time, active policy at circumference led to local confrontation. Both direct and indirect participation of the U. S. in local conflicts became the peculiarity in international relations between the years of 1961 - 1963. The desire to extend its sphere of influence, as a rule, occurred in the form of so-called friendly regime (Cable, 1991).

However, in conditions of bipolar peace this could bring the third world country to the civil war (at least, this situation was quite usual in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Angola, Ethiopia, and some other countries). John F. Kennedys interest in Vietnam between the years of 1961 - 1963 was obviously stipulated by the countrys perfect geographical and geopolitical location, allowing to control south-eastern Asia as a whole (Anderson, 2005). However, it should be also taken into consideration that smaller countries, especially in conditions of global confrontation, were also striving to solve their important social and political tasks, trying to get benefit of contradictions between the larger countries, and often got involved these countries into local conflicts. In this respect, Vietnam was no exception to the rule. Communist government of the North Vietnam had a clear objective to unite the country and put it under control, while the government of the South Vietnam wanted to retain its own power enjoying support from the external sources (e.

g. other world countries). The United States struggled against the USSR in order to retain influence in South-Eastern Asia. The USSR supported South Vietnam and provided it with financial, technical, and, by a secret command, also a military assistance (Hall, 2007). At the same time, John F. Kennedy rendered assistance to South Vietnam, providing military and economic support, sending there military advisors.

Finally, since 1962 the U. S. in fact has started to take part in military actions. From the U. S.

viewpoint, the situation had a strong resemblance with the situation the U. S. faced in Korea during the Korean War (Cable, 1991). In both cases, the country was in fact divided into two parts, where in the north of the country there was communist regime, while in the south of the country there was a U.

S. friendly regime, formally democratic one. However, one of the most important strategic mistakes made by John F. Kennedy in relation to Vietnam between the years of 1961 - 1963 was the fact that South Vietnamese army was prepared to withstand attack from the north of the country (similar to Korean scenario). However, the attack from the north of the country didnt take place; instead there was a partisan war under commandment and active support from the northern part of Vietnam. John F.

Kennedys policy in relation to South Vietnam between the years of 1961 - 1963 was mostly based on the idea of so-called struggle against communist threat, contrapartisam strategy, and the attempt to strengthen democracy in Vietnam (Anderson, 2005). However, this policy was not very successful, as it resulted in direct intervention of the United States into conflict in Vietnam. The political strategy aimed for democratization of the South Vietnam, proclaimed and approved by John F. Kennedys administration led only to a substitution of dictatorship.

In fact, the Ngo Dinh Diem's dictatorship was replaced by the Nguyen Van This dictatorship (Hall, 2007). However, both there governments were relatively far from the real democracy. At the same time, John F. Kennedys administration had no success in struggle against Vietnamese partisans.

John F. Kennedys policy in relation to South Vietnam was also influenced by the events, which took place in the other world regions, such as failure of Cuban military operation (April 1961), crisis in Laos (1960 - 1962), and Berlin crisis (August 1961) (Cable, 1991). All these events were conductive to John F. Kennedys decision to enforce the U. S. intervention in Vietnamese events.

From the viewpoint of the U. S. government, such intervention was required to restore authority of the country after a number of failures in its foreign policy decisions. Caribbean crisis (October 1962) created the illusion of superiority of the U.

S. under the USSR (Cable, 1991). This event also made indirect impact on John F. Kennedys policy in Vietnam. As far as the situation in Laos has changed drastically and due to fact that the supporters of neutrality came to power), South Vietnam became some sort of a touchstone, as it could allow the U.

S. administration to check its ability to retain influence in the south-eastern Asia countries (Hall, 2007). Therefore, the decision to refuse from active military intervention in the events, which took place in Vietnam, seemed equal to serious political failure in the global confrontation, synonymous to "lose the face" of the great country. While examining John F. Kennedys policy in relation to Vietnam between the years of 1961 - 1963, it seems logical to place more emphasis on the U. S.

and South Vietnam policy, with no specific mentioning about North Vietnam (Anderson, 2005). John F. Kennedys administration had no specific relations with North Vietnam, as far as, from the viewpoint of the U. S.

government, the North Vietnam was an enemy country, as it supported partisan movement in South Vietnam during these years. It should be also mentioned that separate aspects of the U. S. policy in relation to South Vietnam have a common analogy with the current international situation. For example, in the beginning of the XXI century, the U. S.

participation in local conflicts is one of the major factors of international relations. The U. S. government actively used power to establish and to extend its sphere of influence in various world regions (for example, in Afghanistan during 2001 - 2002, in Iraq during 2002 - 2003, to mention a few) (Hall, 2007). In both cases the U. S.

intervention, similar to the U. S. intervention in Vietnamese affairs, ended up with the formation of so-called friendly regime. The analysis of the U. S. intervention in Vietnamese conflict between the years of 1961 - 1963 allows to find out the analogies in the U.

S. policy towards the third world countries in the XXI century. Similar to John F. Kennedys policy between the years of 1961 - 1963, the U.

S. government prefers to solve the issues in foreign policy by means of power (Cable, 1991). John F. Kennedys policy, along with John F. Kennedys political driving motives, was also influenced by his economic considerations. In particular, this related to his decision to maintain control over the raw material resources of the region.

In official documents and claims the U. S. intervention was presented as the U. S. struggle against the external threat (communist threat). However, this policy, as it was already mentioned, didnt enjoy much support, especially abroad.

However, the U. S. administration between the years of 1961 - 1963 tried to implement numerous plans of actions aimed to combat and undermine the positions of the partisan movement (Cable, 1991). Since the end of October 1961 the U.

S. ambassador Nothing and the President of Vietnam Ngo Dinh Diem were engaged in a number of negotiations concerning the implementation of the new program. In result of these long-term negotiations, there countries agreed to sign mutual communique, which was aimed to be some sort of all-embracing economic and social program of salvation of the South Vietnam from the Communist threat (Hall, 2007). From the 1961, the U.

S. administration continued to develop numerous variants of future actions in Vietnam. For example, the military mission in Vietnam presented a milestone schedule of contra insurgent plan of actions at the national level. Moreover, in September 1961, the British mission headed by R.

Thompson arrived in Vietnam with its own plan of actions (Hall, 2007). The new stage of the U. S. intervention in Vietnamese affairs began almost immediately after the conference of the civil and military officials took place in Honolulu. John F. Kennedy undertook a number of actions aimed to increase the U.

S. military and economic assistance to South Vietnam and to extend the U. S. participation in management and control over the contra insurgent operations in the South Vietnamese army (Anderson, 2005). On the other hand, their enemies were also undertaking actions in response to the U. S.

operations, in order to win the support of South Vietnamese population. In the beginning of 1962, the U. S. administration continues to develop effective plans against partisan movement in South Vietnam. On January 10, 1962, the inter-departmental commission Vietnam Task Force prepared and presented the new plan of contra insurgent operations (Anderson, 2005). The major concept of this contra insurgent activity included a wide range of political, economic, psychological and military measures required to maintain safety, government control, and support from the Vietnamese population.

Late in January 1962 Tailor recommended John F. Kennedy to examine a new plan under the name Strategic Concept for South Vietnam. Similar to Thompson's plan, the major idea was the system of strategic villages in Vietnam. This so-called program of creation of strategic villages foresaw both creation of the defensive installation in the villages, as well as the usage of the villages in capacity of healthcare, educational and agricultural centres.

The major aim of this proposal was to encourage the population to live in these villages, through provision of the most important and the most necessary conditions for living. This concept gained support in the White House and, on February 1962, the government of South Vietnam proclaimed the program of creation of strategic villages its own national policy of high priority (Cable, 1991). However, despite the U. S.

administrations expectations, Vietnamese population negatively accepted this policy. Nobody wanted to leave their homes and to move to settlements fenced-in by barbed wire. The negative attitude was mostly caused by economic hardships related to transmigration to the other regions of Vietnam. The program also didnt take into account customs and traditions of Vietnamese, as well as their emotional attachment to the land of their ancestors.

The process of migration was done by force during the military operations in Vietnam. Moreover, in order to threaten the Vietnamese population and to force them to move to the villages, the U. S. administration approved bombarding with the usage of napalm and phosphorus bombs (Hall, 2007). Additional emphasis should be placed on fact that the usage of chemical weapons was approved by John F. Kennedy and his administration.

Early January 1962 new Vietnamese national revolutionary party was created. This party managed to unite symbolically (and ideologically) all people who supported the idea of liberation of Vietnam. The leaders also urged for overthrow of the President of Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem (Cable, 1991). In addition, the party wanted to undertake a number of actions aimed to improve the life conditions of Vietnamese population, to protect peace, to maintain the policy of neutrality, to fight for freedom, national independence and democracy.

In the early 1962 Ngo Dinh Diem asked the U. S. to approve the usage of toxic agents within the frameworks of agriculture destruction in the territories surrounded by partisans. John F. Kennedys administration approved this request.

On February 27, 1962 another important event in Saigon occurred (Cable, 1991). This event had great impact on Ngo Dinh Diem's policy: two South Vietnamese air forces fighter planes bombarded Ngo Dinh Diem's residency. To a certain extent this served as evidence that Ngo Dinh Diem's policy loses its popularity. The U. S.

continued to support Vietnam; however, by the early 1963 it became obvious that the situation in Vietnam was completely different from what was reported to John F. Kennedys administration. In addition, John F. Kennedy became even more involved in conflict, at the same time having no intention to refuse from the chosen course of actions. During 1963 the U. S.

continued to render assistance to Ngo Dinh Diem in attempt to stop partisan movement. However, despite this support, the relations between South Vietnam and the U. S. worsened. Due to these changes, the U. S.

administration decided to discuss its further plans in Vietnam (Cable, 1991). While the military advisors considered that the war in Vietnam was quite successful, and were strongly against changes in Vietnamese government (as it could intervene military actions), diplomats have cast some suspicion on the claims about successful military operations in Vietnam. In this respect, diplomats considered there was a necessity to hold reforms and to establish democratic regime. They also suggested to replace the South Vietnamese leader by another one, who will perform his functions more effectively. In result, the U. S.

administration came to conclusion to grant support to military coup d'etat, which successfully took place on November 1, 1963 (Anderson, 2005). In conclusion it may be said that John F. Kennedys policy in relation to Vietnam between the years of 1961 - 1963 was mainly explained by the U. S. desire to strengthen its sphere of influence in South Eastern Asia, to maintain a counterbalance between the U.

S. and the USSR's presence in Asia, to deter China, and to maintain control over the national liberation movement. The policy held by John F. Kennedy in Vietnam was a manifestation of a real policy the policy from the position of strength. References Anderson, D.

L. (2005). The Vietnam War. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Cable, L. (1991). Unholy Grail: The U. S.

and the Wars in Vietnam. New York: Routledge. Hall, M. K. (2007). The Vietnam War. Longman Publishers.


Free research essays on topics related to: ngo dinh, john f kennedy, u s government, south vietnam, communist threat

Research essay sample on John F Kennedy And Vietnam

Writing service prices per page

  • $18.85 - in 14 days
  • $19.95 - in 3 days
  • $23.95 - within 48 hours
  • $26.95 - within 24 hours
  • $29.95 - within 12 hours
  • $34.95 - within 6 hours
  • $39.95 - within 3 hours
  • Calculate total price

Our guarantee

  • 100% money back guarantee
  • plagiarism-free authentic works
  • completely confidential service
  • timely revisions until completely satisfied
  • 24/7 customer support
  • payments protected by PayPal

Secure payment

With EssayChief you get

  • Strict plagiarism detection regulations
  • 300+ words per page
  • Times New Roman font 12 pts, double-spaced
  • FREE abstract, outline, bibliography
  • Money back guarantee for missed deadline
  • Round-the-clock customer support
  • Complete anonymity of all our clients
  • Custom essays
  • Writing service

EssayChief can handle your

  • essays, term papers
  • book and movie reports
  • Power Point presentations
  • annotated bibliographies
  • theses, dissertations
  • exam preparations
  • editing and proofreading of your texts
  • academic ghostwriting of any kind

Free essay samples

Browse essays by topic:

Stay with EssayChief! We offer 10% discount to all our return customers. Once you place your order you will receive an email with the password. You can use this password for unlimited period and you can share it with your friends!

Academic ghostwriting

About us

© 2002-2024 EssayChief.com