John F Kennedy and Vietnam

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In order to describe the things that John F. Kennedy contributed to the Vietnam War, it is crucial to give a slight background to his character. First of all, he was the youngest president, the first Catholic president, and the youngest to be assassinated while in office. JFK served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, commanding the patrol boat PT-109 and leading his crew to rescue after the boat was sunk by the Japanese in the Solomon Islands. He was also a Democrat and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts' 11th district in 1946. In 1952 he moved up to the U.S. Senate, defeating Henry Cabot Lodge. He went on to marry Jackie Bouvier on 12 September 1953; they had two children, Caroline and John Jr. (A third child, Patrick, was born on August 7th, 1963 and died two days later) (http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK+Library+and+Museum/News+and+Press/Vietnam+and+the+Presidency.htm).

JFK was elected to replace President Dwight Eisenhower in 1960 (narrowly defeating Eisenhower's vice-president, Richard Nixon); he swept into office with a reputation for youthful charm, impatience, wit and vigor. Kennedy's term was sometimes called the New Frontier, a phrase he coined in his acceptance speech at the 1960 Democratic convention (Answers.com).

President Kennedy came into office with a belief that America could and should shape the destiny of the world's developing countries. (Imperialism) Vietnam, however, was not largely what he had in mind. President Kennedy believed that the unsteadiness of developing countries demanded new approaches. Kennedy was taken aback when Walt W. Rostow, who believed that all nations followed the same general path of economic and social development, argued that nations became unstable as the reached the phase he called "modernization." The Kennedy administration was guided in part by this modernization model as it considered a way to protect South Vietnam while help it throughout the stages of economic growth. Most of Kennedy's advisers believed that South Vietnam was not in danger. As Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defense said once, "North Vietnam will never beat us. They can't even make ice cubes." (http://www.vietnamwar.com/johnkennedyrole.htm)

Basically, the U.S. entered the Vietnam War in order to hold the line against the spread of world Communism. America paid for the war the French fought against Communist Vietnam as a part of the Truman Doctrine (1947) "to protect free peoples…" and then by the 1950's became involved when the war flared up again. By the late 1950's the Americans developed the "Domino Theory" as a justification for the involvement.

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