Many historians viewed Kennedy as a young, naïve president who lacked a clear policy but the counter argument is that Kennedy was decisive and assertive. In order to judge whether John F. Kennedy lacked a clear policy in Vietnam we have to compare the policies of Dwight Eisenhower’s in Vietnam and John F. Kennedys policies and how it contradicted with their ideologies.
The view by some historians is that The Dwight Eisenhower foreign policy was popularly known as the “New Look”. This policy aimed to maintain the American financial economy while Eisenhower was planning the Cold war and continue the containment of communism regime. Also, the “New look” policy relied heavily on nuclear weapons to stop communism. Therefore the policy was been …show more content…
credibility after the failures in the Cold War, the spread of communism in Laos and the Bay of pigs invasion in 1961. The Cold War can be viewed as a political and military tension after the world war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Ultimately, the Cold War was a clash of ideologies such as capitalism and communism which caused an international struggle to gain full control. The ‘Bay of pigs invasion’ was a C.I.A backed up project to stop communism influence on the rest of the world. Kennedy was in doubt about the success of the plan and feared for the country’s and his image. Kennedy couldn’t stop the invasion as it would be viewed as ‘politically embarrassing’. Unfortunately, the plan failed miserably and destroyed Kennedy’s political and domestic image. To the public eye, the invasion plan became a political lesson to all leaders to have strong operational control during international crises. According to historians, ‘The Bay of Pigs Invasion’ failure left a serious dent on the American foreign policy. It showed the rest of the world that the façade that America put up as a super of the world isn’t so. Also, Kennedy’s decision to allow the invasion plan contradicted with his foreign policies which were his desire to stop Dwight Eisenhower’s policy of ‘Brinkmanship and massive retaliation’, but it only showed …show more content…
The failure in Cuba and “the politics of anti-communism played a large role in shaping Kennedys decisions” as it encouraged him to intensify his engagement in Vietnam. Arguably, Kennedy wanted to “provide a U.S. military presence capable of raising morale and of showing to Southeast Asia the seriousness of the U.S. intent to resist a communist takeover” . In order to prove this ideology, Kennedy decided that sending regular military troops to Vietnam would not be suitable to win the war. Kennedy stated to build a much stronger military personnel and infrastructure. However, Kennedy did not take into consideration the Vietcong. The Vietcong were strong and ruthless and could survive the harsh conditions on Vietnam unlike the American military that didn’t fully know the Vietnam grounds. From the historian’s point of view, once Kennedy noticed that the Vietcong could destroy his attempts of increased credibility, there was the introduction of weapons such as chemical warfare (nuclear war) to stop the Vietcong. It can be strongly argued that the “total war aimed at the destruction of the Vietcong”. However, the chemical warfare didn’t frighten the Vietcong as “by early 1961, Vietcong guerrillas were gradually bleeding south Vietnam to death, destroying its will to resist, eroding its faith in the future, and paralyzing its progress through