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Intel - History
Vietnam War

"In God we trust.
All others we monitor."

• President Kennedy issues National Security Action Memorandum 52, rejecting an appeal by the Joint Chiefs of Staff for a total commitment to South Vietnam and deployment of U.S. ground forces there.
• The Joint Chiefs argued for a total commitment to South Vietnam, up to and including nuclear war if necessary. 

• Kennedy's cabinet, including McGeorge Bundy, Robert McNamara, and Dean Rus, argued for intervention for cabinet warfare purposes--using military deployment to score points for the negotiating table. NSAM-52 is upheld in a May 19 review.

National Security Advisor Walt Rostow

• President Kennedy rejects the plan of National Security Advisor Walt Rostow to retake southern Laos and begin U.S. military operations against North Vietnam, emphasizing that the American people and "many distinguished military leaders" were reluctant to see U.S. troops become involved in that part of the world.

• President Kennedy issues NSAM-111, in opposition to his advisers and Joint Chiefs of Staff.
• The memo approved a significant increase in U.S. advisors and equipment to South Vietnam, but did not approve deployment of U.S. ground forces there or give ultimate guarantees to save Vietnam from communism.

• Kennedy argued against Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara's demand for U.S. troop intervention, according to notes of the NSC meeting, that he could make a "rather strong case against intervening in an area 10,000 miles away against 16,000 guerrillas with a native army of 200,000, where millions have been spent for years with no success."

• Kennedy tells National Security Council member Michael Forrestal, Forrestal reports, that he "wished us to be prepared to seize upon any favorable moment to reduce our commitment [to Vietnam], recognizing that the moment might yet some time away."

South Vietnamese President Diem

• President Diem of South Vietnam murdered after he is overthrown by a generals' coup, orchestrated by the U.S. embassy, although Kennedy had ordered a policy of U.S. neutrality on internecine South Vietnam politics.

• President Kennedy issues NSAM-263, directing a 1000-man U.S. withdrawal from South Vietnam by the end of the year, as Kennedy sought to turn the war effort over to the U.S.-trained Vietnamese.

• President Kennedy holds a press conference stating that "Now, that is our object, to bring Americans home, permit the South Vietnamese to maintain themselves as a free and independent country, and permit democratic forces to operate."

• Kennedy tells National Security Council member Michael Forrestal that "I want to start a complete and very profound review of how we got into this country [Vietnam]; what we thought were doing; and what we now think we can do. I even want to think about whether or not we should be there."  

• McGeorge Bundy drafts NSAM-273 under President Kennedy's directions. This draft states: "It remains the central object of the United States in South Vietnam to assist the people and government of that country to win their contest against" communism. The NSAM-273 signifies Kennedy's continuing rejection of U.S. military operations against North Vietnam. 

• President Kennedy assassinated in Dallas, Texas. 

• First White House meeting on Vietnam with President Lyndon Johnson, in which Johnson states: "I am not going to lose Vietnam. I am not going to be the President who saw Southeast Asia go the way of China."

• A revised NSAM-273 is signed by President Johnson. This version authorizes U.S. military operations against North Vietnam.

Asst Defense Secretary William Bundy

• Assistant Secretary of Defense William Bundy issues draft memorandum calling for strategy of air strikes against North Vietnam. 

Undersecretary of State George Ball

• Undersecretary of State George Ball rejects advice of French President Charles de Gaulle to withdraw U.S. forces from Vietnam.

• Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin resolution which gives the administration approval in advance to take any and "all necessary steps" to assist South Vietnam or any member of the Southeast Asian Treaty Organization to resist communism. Such a resolution had been proposed by William Bundy in a June 12 memo. 

National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy

• National Security advisor McGeorge Bundy argues for a policy of "sustained reprisal" against North Vietnam, which was approved by Johnson on Feb. 13.

• President Johnson agreed to the deployment of U.S. ground troops to South Vietnam and a change in their mission to active combat.

Former Ford Executive Robert S. McNamara

• Defense Secretary Robert McNamara sends a memo to President Johnson, guaranteeing victory in Vietnam if the U.S. force level is brought up to 175,000-200,000 men.

• President Johnson announced that U.S. troop strength in Vietnam would be increased from 75,000 to 125,000.

• McNamara, after visiting Vietnam, reports to Johnson that the current build-up would not stave off defeat, and called for escalation of bombing against North Vietnam and increasing U.S. troop strength further. Nov. 5, 1966: McNamara says that U.S. forces in Vietnam will continue to increase.

British Prime Minister Harold Wilson

• President Johnson begins negotiations with the Soviet Union on Vietnam mediated by British Prime Minister Harold Wilson, and with the Hanoi regime through Harvard Professor Henry Kissinger.

Tet Offensive

• North Vietnamese Tet offensive into the South.

Gen. Earle Wheeler

• Gen. Earle Wheeler returns from South Vietnam with the report that only with the deployment of an additional 200,000 U.S. troops to Vietnam, can the South regain the initiative.

• President Johnson announces US. cessation of bombing of North Vietnam except in area directly north of DMV, and announces his withdrawal from the presidential race in the face of massive protest to the escalation of the Vietnam War. 
• The de-escalation begins.

• President Richard Nixon, under the tutelage of his Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, announces the so-called Guam Doctrine of U.S. withdrawal from Asia during a press briefing in Guam.
• Nixon states: "The United States is going to encourage and has a right to expect that defense will be increasingly handled by, and the responsibility for it taken by, the Asian nations themselves.... [Military involvement and aid] will recede, [but economic aid] will be adequate to meet the challenge as it develops."

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