"pay any price, bear any burden, met any hardship, support any friend" text

• but obstacles of polycentrism, neutralism, aggressive China, wars of "national liberation"
  
• also problem of the "Ugly American" - 1958 book by William Lederer and Eugene Burdick - 78 weeks on best seller list, 20 printings, 4m copies sold, 1963 film with Marlon Brando- JFK sent a copy of the book to every senator - a jeremiad that warned of decline in the American character, the loss of traditional virtue and mission in the world, the falling away of foreign service officers from frontier sacrifice to urban comfort, affluence, status, careers - character Tom Knox is seduced by Paris but engineer Homer Atkins invents a water pump and transforms the jungle into an industrial complex - wins the hearts and minds of the Sarkhanese and their friendship to defeat the "savage" Viet Minh and Soviet agents
  
• Kennedy's article "The Vigor We Need" in Sports Illustrated, July 16, 1962
• Stan Musial and Council on Physical Fitness
  
• Peace Corps
  
• Robert McNamara and "whiz kids" - "Best and the Brightest" according to David Halberstam
• Dean Rusk as Secretary of State, McGeorge Bundy as NSC advisor, Walt Rostow as NSC special advisor, Maxwell Taylor as military advisor and 1962 JCS Chairman,

Laos

• Jan. 2, 1961 - SEATO in Bangkok, but deGaulle opposed intervention
  
• Feb. - pro-U.S. Gen. Phoumi lost Plain of Jarres to pro-communist Pathet Lao - map Sept. 1959
  
• Mar. 9 - JFK declared continued support to Phoumi against external threat - supported by the Wise Men
  
• Mar. 23 - dramatic TV press conference with large maps, said U.S. ready to intervene, asked for allied help - MacMillan agreed to help - JFK sent Seventh Fleet, 500 marines to Thailand - took Gromyko for walk in the Rose Garden Mar. 27
  
• Apr. 1 - Khru. said he would seek to establish a neutral Laos, but could not get Pathet Lao to stop fighting
  
• Apr. 5 - U.S. advisors without uniforms help Phoumi, but defeated by Apr. 14
  
• Apr. 15-17 - Bay of Pigs - popularity increased
• Apr. 20 - JFK ordered advisors to wear uniforms - 4 captured Apr. 24
  
• May 1 - SEATO arranged ceasefire supervised by International Control Commission
  
• Oct. 8 - Geneva conference agreed on coalition government of 16 members (4 Pathet Lao, 4 conservatives, 8 neutralists)
  
• Feb. 1, 1962 - Gen. Phoumi resisted settlement and Averell Harriman persuaded JFK to cut off all aid to Phoumi
  
• May 6 - Pathet Lao defeat Phoumi and capture Nam Tha
  
• June 11 - coalition re-established under neutralist Souvanna Phouma
  
• July 23 - Geneva agreement signed by all sides, an independent neutralist coalition led by Souvanna Phouma, was "a good, bad deal" according to W. Averell Harriman
  
• U.S. sent arms to rightists in Phouma's coalition, continued secret campaign against Pathet Lao

Cambodia

• won independence from France 1955
  
• Sihanouk neutralist 1955-63, then was accused of allowing communists to use its border as sanctuary to fight in Thailand and Vietnam
  
• by the end of 1963, Sihanouk renounced all U.S. aid and became pro-China
  

Thailand

• kingdom of Siam changed its name in 1939 to Thailand, "land of the free"
  
• joined UN 1946, SEATO 1954
  
• army commander Sarit became prime minister 1959, was pro-U.S. until died Dec. 1963
  

Burma

• won independence from Britain 1948
  
• U Nu neutralist until 1960 China treaty
  
• Gen. Ne Win arrested U Nu Mar. 2, 1962, established anti-communist government, abolished private enterprise and nationalized economy, ruled until July 1988
  

Indonesia

• won independence 1949, became neutral, refused U.S. aid, Sukarno became pro-China
  
• had 3rd largest communist party in world - opposed by rightist army
  
• Sukarno invited to America by Kennedy April25, 1961 - 1 - 2
• 1962 negotiations by Ellsworth Bunker helped Sukarno get Dutch-held West New Guinea
  
• but Sukarno withdrew from U.N. Jan. 1965, overthrown by army Sept. 30
  

India

• India nonaligned, but threatened by Pakistan and China
• Nehru neutralist, leader of Gandhi's National Congress
  
• seized Portuguese Goa enclave Dec. 17, 1961
  
• U.S. ambassador John K. Galbraith arranged Nehru's visit to U.S. Nov. 1961; Jackie's visit to India Mar. 1962
  
• northern border attacked by China Oct. 1962 - Nehru accepted $3b U.S. aid
  
• Nehru died 1964, succeeded by his only child Indira until 1984

Pakistan

• created 1947 for Moslems, but Kashmir disputed
• The hereditary ruler of Kashmir, Maharaja Hari Singh, a Hindu ruling a Muslim-majority population, agreed in the Instrument of Accession of October 27, 1947 to Indian dominion, partly to gain Indian military assistance against an Islamic revolt. The cease-fire at the end of the first Indian-Pakistani war in 1947 gave 65 percent of Kashmir to India temporarily with a plebiscite to follow, but there was no plebiscite.
• "Asia from Irkutsk"1952
  
• Gen. Ayub Khan adopted constitution Mar. 1962
  
• China-Pakistan agreement on Kashmir Mar. 1963
  
• 2nd war 1965 with both India and Pakistan using U.S. arms; 3rd war 1971

Vietnam

• Ngo Dinh Diem anti-communist, pro-U.S. in south; Ho Chi Minh pro-USSR in north - map 1954
  
• National Liberation Front organized in south Dec. 20, 1960, by anti-Diem groups
  
• infiltration from north began 1961, communist People's Revolutionary Party gained leadership of NLF by 1962
  
• JFK sought "limited partnership" with Diem, flexible response, counterinsurgency, nation-building, reform without revolution
  
• CIA recruited Meo (Hmong) tribesmen in Laos, Montagnards in Central Highlands to fight Pathet Lao and Viet Minh
  
• Maxwell Taylor and Green Berets May 1961 - article by Joseph Kraft - uniforms and training and languages
  
• Operation Ranch Hand Nov. 1961 - 18m gals herbicides (2/3 was agnt Orange) on 8% land area by 1971
  
• MAAG (Truman's Military Advisory and Assistance Group) replaced by MACV (Military Assistnce Command, Vietnam) Feb. 12, 1962, under Gen. Paul Harkins and Project Beef-Up - 11300 advisors sent during 1962, with 300 aircraft, automatic rifles, napalm, penicillim - 16000 advisors by Nov. 1963
  
• Operation Sunrise - strategic hamlet program - 6800 built by Nov. 1963
  
• Texas group awarded $2b to construct bases at Saigon, Danang, Cam Ranh Bay, Qui Nonh
  
• Battle of Ap Bac Jan. 2, 1963 in Mekong Delta - map - 350 VC attacked by 2 ARVN battalions with 5 new HU-1 Iroquois helicopters, but ARVN reluctant to fight, all helicopters shot down, 3 U.S. pilots killed - Lt. Col. John Vann led 13 M113 armored personnel carriers into vilage after ARVN refused to advance - battle revealed weakness of popular support for the Diem Catholic urban mercantile elite government that had abolished the village electoral system in 1956, failed to implement land reform, followed anti-Buddhist repression
  
• JFK State of Union speech Jan. 14 declared that "aggression blunted in Vietnam"
  
• JCS sent investigation team Jan. 18 - Joe Mendenhall said VC getting stronger
  
• infiltration from NV grew from 850 per month to 1700 per month, with new Russian heavy weapons imported by fishing boats - 81mm mortars with 2-mile range, 75mm recoiless rifle - launched major offensive in Delta that destroyed strategic hamlets and captured 200,000 U.S. weapons by Nov.
  
• Buddhist riots May 8 led by Tri Quang - Diem's troops fired into Buddhist crowd and killed 8 - immolation suicide of Quang Duc June 11
  
• Diem assault on Buddhist pagodas Aug. 20 - martial law - 1400 arrested
  
• JFK feared that the U.S. would "lose" Vietnam like Truman lost China in '49 - replaced Nolting with new ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge in Aug. - Rusk cable to Lodge Aug. 24 to encourage SV generals planning coup to overthrow Diem - JFK approved on Oct. 5 the selective suspension of aid to Diem - Rusk cable to Lodge Oct. 6 "while we do not wish to stimulate a coup," the U.S. would support a more popular government - Diem assassinated Nov. 2
  
• JFK approved on Nov 20 McNamara's Plan 34A, covert operations in NV including commando raids, kidnapping, mercenaries, parachute sabotage teams, U.S. Navy intelligence-gathering DeSoto patrols
  
• songs by Pete Seeger, Kingston Trio and emerging folk-rock genre
• JFK killed in Dallas Nov. 22
  

Resources:

• JFK links and Abbie Rowe photos
• JFK and Search for Peace
• USIA films The Wall (1962) by former Hearst Newsreel editor Walter de Hoog, and Years of Lightning, Day of Drums (1966)
• Vietnam Policies and Mideast Policies
• Senator Robert Byrd

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