JFK+50: Volume 7, No. 2447
DID JFK PLAN TO WITHDRAW FROM VIETNAM?
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) In 1962, President John F. Kennedy said...
"We don't have a prayer of staying (in Vietnam). Those people hate us...but I can't give up...to the communists and get the American people to re-elect me."
According to James K. Galbraith*, professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas-Austin, however, President Kennedy planned to withdraw "by the end of 1965."
LBJ's Deputy National Security Adviser, Francis Bator, concurs...
"There was a plan to withdraw U.S. forces from Vietnam...almost all...by the end of 1965. President Kennedy had approved that plan. It was the actual policy of the United States on the day Kennedy died."
Galbraith gives four pieces of evidence to support his claim.
1. Secretary of Defense McNamara's instructions of May 1963 to develop the withdrawal plan
2. Withdrawal plan drafted at the Pentagon by a team under JFK's control
3. Audiotape discussion of NSA Memo 263**
4.Instructions for withdrawal by Maxwell Taylor, chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff of October 4, 1963 stating "all planning will be directed toward preparing RVN forces for the withdrawal of all U.S. special assistance units and personnel by the end of...1965."
Professor Galbraith says that after JFK's death, many historians developed a "false narrative" of "absolute continuity" in policy from Kennedy to Johnson. It seems to fit very well with LBJ's 1964 election campaign slogan..."Let Us Continue."
*James Kenneth Galbraith was born on Jan. 29, 1952, the son of noted economist John Kenneth Galbraith. JKG earned a BA in economics at Harvard in 1974 & a PhD in economics at Yale in 1981.
**In the National Security Memorandum 263 of Oct 11, 1963, JFK approved the recommendations of the McNamara-Taylor Report, but directed no formal announcement be made of the implementation of plans to withdraw 1000 U.S. military personnel by the end of 1963.
The Report also recommended "a program be established to train Vietnamese so that essential functions now performed by U.S. military personnel can be carried out by Vietnamese by the end of 1965. IT SHOULD BE POSSIBLE to withdraw the bulk of U.S. personnel by that time."
These recommendations were contingent on military success.
SOURCES
"JFK Had Ordered Full Withdrawal From Vietnam: Solid Evidence," by James K. Galbraith, Deep Politics, September 26, 2017, www/whowhatwhy.org/
"Memorandum From the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Taylor) and the Secretary of Defense (McNamara) to the President", October 2, 1963, Foreign Relations of the United States 1961-1963, Volume IV, Vietnam, August-December 1963, Office of the Historian, Department of State, www.history.state.gov/
"National Security Memorandum 263", John F. Kennedy Library, Boston, www.jfklibrary.org/
James Kenneth Galbraith
DID JFK PLAN TO WITHDRAW FROM VIETNAM?
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) In 1962, President John F. Kennedy said...
"We don't have a prayer of staying (in Vietnam). Those people hate us...but I can't give up...to the communists and get the American people to re-elect me."
According to James K. Galbraith*, professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas-Austin, however, President Kennedy planned to withdraw "by the end of 1965."
LBJ's Deputy National Security Adviser, Francis Bator, concurs...
"There was a plan to withdraw U.S. forces from Vietnam...almost all...by the end of 1965. President Kennedy had approved that plan. It was the actual policy of the United States on the day Kennedy died."
Galbraith gives four pieces of evidence to support his claim.
1. Secretary of Defense McNamara's instructions of May 1963 to develop the withdrawal plan
2. Withdrawal plan drafted at the Pentagon by a team under JFK's control
3. Audiotape discussion of NSA Memo 263**
4.Instructions for withdrawal by Maxwell Taylor, chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff of October 4, 1963 stating "all planning will be directed toward preparing RVN forces for the withdrawal of all U.S. special assistance units and personnel by the end of...1965."
Professor Galbraith says that after JFK's death, many historians developed a "false narrative" of "absolute continuity" in policy from Kennedy to Johnson. It seems to fit very well with LBJ's 1964 election campaign slogan..."Let Us Continue."
*James Kenneth Galbraith was born on Jan. 29, 1952, the son of noted economist John Kenneth Galbraith. JKG earned a BA in economics at Harvard in 1974 & a PhD in economics at Yale in 1981.
**In the National Security Memorandum 263 of Oct 11, 1963, JFK approved the recommendations of the McNamara-Taylor Report, but directed no formal announcement be made of the implementation of plans to withdraw 1000 U.S. military personnel by the end of 1963.
The Report also recommended "a program be established to train Vietnamese so that essential functions now performed by U.S. military personnel can be carried out by Vietnamese by the end of 1965. IT SHOULD BE POSSIBLE to withdraw the bulk of U.S. personnel by that time."
These recommendations were contingent on military success.
SOURCES
"JFK Had Ordered Full Withdrawal From Vietnam: Solid Evidence," by James K. Galbraith, Deep Politics, September 26, 2017, www/whowhatwhy.org/
"Memorandum From the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Taylor) and the Secretary of Defense (McNamara) to the President", October 2, 1963, Foreign Relations of the United States 1961-1963, Volume IV, Vietnam, August-December 1963, Office of the Historian, Department of State, www.history.state.gov/
"National Security Memorandum 263", John F. Kennedy Library, Boston, www.jfklibrary.org/
James Kenneth Galbraith
University of Texas
Photo by UNCTAD (2012)
Photo by UNCTAD (2012)
