the 1960 election and Vietnam

[dustdevil28]

I asked peck a question on the THC forum and after 101 suggested the history forum I agree that this is a topic deserving of it's own thread.

We all know that in 1960 JFK won the Presidency by a small margin over Richard Nixon. Now what effect did this have on Vietnam? The election of JFK saw the outgoing Eisenhower, a hardliner whom the communists feared replaced by the youthful ideas of the Kennedy administration.

While the outgoing Eisenhower had begun to favor American intervention in Loas, he delayed the decision to allow whoever was his successor to make the call on Loas. The decision wound up being a horrible decision to seek a neutral government in Laos. At this time the N. Vietnamese troops had secured Southern Loas and a neutral government would allow them to facilitate weapons, personnal, and other supplies to the VC accross the Loas S. Vietnam boarder.

Many things could have happened if the Americans had sent troops to Loas, China could have sent there troops and a major conflict could have erupted. American troops could have secured Southern Loas in a move to prevent the supply of the VC. What ended up happening was the VC were able to maintain the heavy losses soffered against the ARVN forces because of constant replacements being provided by N. Vietnam.

Perhaps the most fateful decision though was the outser of the Diem Regime. Diem had been in power for nine years and had shown himself to be a proven force against Communism in S. Vietnam. Unfortunatly for Diem his heavy handed tactics for putting down disposition brought condemnation from Western Journalists, and elites in the America. It also brought pressure from the State department in the Kennedy administration for Diem to libralise his government.

For Kennedy personaly, the worst decision may have been appointing Henry Cabot Lodge as ambassador to S. Vietnam. Kennedy was mindful of Lodge as a Republican candidate for President in the '64 election and figured and failure of S. Vietnam could be pinned on Lodge and hurt his chances in a upcoming election. Because of these worries Kennedy would not remove Lodge and Lodge would become a key deciding figure in Diem's ouster.

Before I ramble on I'll just get to the question of my post. How do you think Vietnam would have played out if Nixon would have won the 60 election? Could Nixon have kept Diem from losing power, and if so, does Diem remaining in power keep America from sending our own ground forces to keep S. Vietnam from falling?

Any thoughts?

[MARIO]

battleborn said:

I asked peck a question on the THC forum and after 101 suggested the history forum I agree that this is a topic deserving of it's own thread.

We all know that in 1960 JFK won the Presidency by a small margin over Richard Nixon. Now what effect did this have on Vietnam? The election of JFK saw the outgoing Eisenhower, a hardliner whom the communists feared replaced by the youthful ideas of the Kennedy administration.

While the outgoing Eisenhower had begun to favor American intervention in Loas, he delayed the decision to allow whoever was his successor to make the call on Loas. The decision wound up being a horrible decision to seek a neutral government in Laos. At this time the N. Vietnamese troops had secured Southern Loas and a neutral government would allow them to facilitate weapons, personnal, and other supplies to the VC accross the Loas S. Vietnam boarder.

Many things could have happened if the Americans had sent troops to Loas, China could have sent there troops and a major conflict could have erupted. American troops could have secured Southern Loas in a move to prevent the supply of the VC. What ended up happening was the VC were able to maintain the heavy losses soffered against the ARVN forces because of constant replacements being provided by N. Vietnam.

Perhaps the most fateful decision though was the outser of the Diem Regime. Diem had been in power for nine years and had shown himself to be a proven force against Communism in S. Vietnam. Unfortunatly for Diem his heavy handed tactics for putting down disposition brought condemnation from Western Journalists, and elites in the America. It also brought pressure from the State department in the Kennedy administration for Diem to libralise his government.

For Kennedy personaly, the worst decision may have been appointing Henry Cabot Lodge as ambassador to S. Vietnam. Kennedy was mindful of Lodge as a Republican candidate for President in the '64 election and figured and failure of S. Vietnam could be pinned on Lodge and hurt his chances in a upcoming election. Because of these worries Kennedy would not remove Lodge and Lodge would become a key deciding figure in Diem's ouster.

Before I ramble on I'll just get to the question of my post. How do you think Vietnam would have played out if Nixon would have won the 60 election? Could Nixon have kept Diem from losing power, and if so, does Diem remaining in power keep America from sending our own ground forces to keep S. Vietnam from falling?

Any thoughts?

The ironic thing is that Nixon, in all likelihood, won the 1960 Presidential election. But for the good of the country, he conceded defeat to John kennedy.

However, as you know, Kennedy was a strong believe in "Flexible Response." This allowed for military restraint and escalation in increments.

I have no doubt Nixon would have won the Vietnam War in under a year because he had no qualms about using military force. I base this opinion on his reaction to the North Vietnamese sanctuaries in Cambodia and his other decisions which involved massive bombing of the North and the mining of Haiphong Harbor.

It's a true shame Nixon wasn't President in the early 60's instead of the early 70's. It would have saved millions of lives, as far as I'm concerned.