THE MILITARY PROGRAM IN VIETNAM IS SOUND IN PRINCIPLE

JFK+50:  Volume 7, No. 2459

MCNAMARA-TAYLOR STATEMENT ON VIETNAM RELEASED 

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) Fifty-four years ago today, October 2, 1963, the White House issued a statement following the return of Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Maxwell Taylor from their special mission to South Vietnam.

The statement began...

"Secretary McNamara and General Taylor reported to the President this morning and to the National Security Council this afternoon.Their report included a number of classified findings and recommendations which will be the subject of further review and action."

The following  recommendations were approved by the President...

1. We will adhere to our policy of working with the people and Government of South Vietnam to deny this country to communism.

2. The military program in SV has made progress and is sound in principle.

3. Major US assistance...is needed only until the insurgency has been suppressed or until the national security forces of the Government of South Vietnam are capable of suppressing it.^

4. The political situation in SV remains deeply serious.

5. It remains the policy of the United States...to support the efforts...to defeat aggression and to build a peaceful and free society.

^The McNamara-Taylor Report said that 1000 US military advisers "COULD be withdrawn" from South Vietnam by the end of the year 1963, and that "the major part of the U.S. military task can be completed by 1965."

JFK and Bob McNamara

June 19, 1962

Photo by Cecil Stoughton

JFK Library Image

MCNAMARA-TAYLOR REPORT ON VIETNAM

JFK+50:  Volume 7, No. 2439

JFK ASKS FOR URGENT REVIEW OF SITUATION IN VIETNAM

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) Fifty-four years ago, September 21, 1963, President John F. Kennedy sent Robert S. McNamara* and General Maxwell Taylor** to Saigon to provide an "urgent review" of the situation in Southeast Asia.

Bob McNamara, Secretary of Defense, and General Taylor, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spent a week in South Vietnam and issued a brief report to the President on October 2, 1963.  

Following are the main points made in the report:

1. The Diem-Nhu government is increasingly unpopular.
2. Many SV military officers are hostile to the D-N government.
3. Withhold (some) financial aid to SV to pressure for meaningful reforms.

*Robert S. McNamara (1916-2009) was born in San Francisco & graduated from Harvard Business School.  RSM served in the US Army Air Corps in WWII and later was president of Ford Motor Company.

Described as 'one of the most influential defense secretaries of the 20th century,' McNamara became disillusioned with the Vietnam War in 1968 & wrote a memo to LBJ to freeze American troop levels and stop the bombing of the north.  

RSM remained silent about his true feelings for 28 years, but in 1995 he admitted that the war was 'terribly wrong' and that the American failure was in seeing the enemy through the prism of the cold war.

**Maxwell Davenport Taylor (1901-1987)  MDT graduated from West Point in 1922 and served in the US Army Corps of Engineers.  He served in the 101st Airborne Division in WWII. After his stint on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Taylor was Ambassador to South Vietnam 1964-1965.

SOURCES

"Robert S. McNamara, Architect of a Futile War, Dies at 93," by Tim Weiner, July 6, 2009, New York Times, www.nytimes.com/

"The McNamara-Taylor Report on Vietnam, 1963", alpha history, Vietnam War, www.alphahistory.com/

"This Is What We Do", The Vietnam War:  A Film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, September 21, 2017, www.pbs.org/

McNamara, Taylor and JFK

EXCOM Meeting

January 25, 1963

JFK Library Photo

MAJOR RUDOLF ANDERSON

JFK+50:  Volume 6, No. 2111

AMERICAN U-2 SHOT DOWN OVER CUBA 54 YEARS AGO

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On the morning of October 27, 1962, fifty-four years ago, the White House Situation Room, located in the basement of the West Wing, was informed that five of six Soviet medium-range nuclear missile sites in Cuba were "fully operational."

The information, which meant most of the southeastern United States was within range of twenty 1 megaton nuclear warheads, was made available to President John F. Kennedy by the Central Intelligence Agency.

Later in an afternoon meeting in the Cabinet Room, General Maxwell Taylor, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, advised President Kennedy to authorize massive air strikes on Cuba by Monday morning.

Adding fuel to the fire for a military response, news came to the afternoon meeting of EXCOM that a U-2 piloted by Major Rudolf Anderson* was shot down by Soviet SAM (surface-to-air) missiles as he was returning from a mission over Cuba.

Anderson, who was 35 years old, died at 11:19 a.m. as a result of shrapnel from the exploding Soviet missile puncturing his pressure suit causing it to decompress at high altitude.  Soviet Major Ivan Gerchenov gave the order to shoot down the U-2 after being unable to get a response from higher authorities.  

Robert Kennedy later wrote...

"The President....was more disturbed by the death of Major Anderson...than he was worried about Khrushchev.  He asked the Defense Department to find out if Anderson had a wife and family."  

When JFK received information that Major Anderson was married with 2 sons, ages 3 and 5, he said to Dave Powers...

"He had a boy about the same age as John, Jr."


*Major Rudolf  'Rudy' Anderson (1927-1962), was born in Greenville, SC and graduated from Clemson University.  In 1962, he was in the 4080 Strategic Reconnaissance Wing. He was honored after death with the 1st Air Force Cross and the Distinguished Service Medal. 

Range of Soviet

Medium Range Ballistic Missiles

CIA Map

WE SHALL PAY ANY PRICE TO INSURE THE SUCCESS OF LIBERTY

JFK+50:  Volume 6, No. 1982

JFK MAKES DECISION TO SEND MILITARY ADVISERS TO SOUTH VIETNAM

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) Fifty-five years ago today, June 16, 1961, President John F. Kennedy made the decision to send American military advisers as instructors to assist the South Vietnamese Army.  The decision came after a meeting with South Vietnam envoy Nguyen Dinh Thuan.  The previous month, JFK had sent 400 Green Berets to train South Vietnamese soldiers in counter-insurgency fighting.  

By October 1961, General Maxwell Taylor, after a visit to South Vietnam, recommended the sending of 8000 combat troops while Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara and the Joint Chiefs of Staff called for the sending of 6 combat divisions totaling 200,000 men.  President Kennedy declined to authorize either recommendation.

At the time of JFK's death in late November 1963, the United States had 16,000 military advisers in South Vietnam but no combat troops.  In 1965, however, after concluding the SVA could not contain the North Vietnamese communists, General Westmoreland and Ambassador Taylor once again recommended sending combat troops.  This time, President Lyndon B. Johnson issued the order.

SOURCES

"The Buildup of US Forces, July 1965 July 1966" www.history.army.mil/

"The Vietnam War, America Commits 1961-1964," The History Place, www.historyplace.com/

Vietnam Map

by GGlassey

MISSILE CRISIS DAY 12

JFK+50:  Volume 5, No. 1756

CIA REPORTS SOVIET MISSILES IN CUBA ARE FULLY OPERATIONAL

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On the morning of the twelfth day of the Cuban Missile Crisis, fifty-three years ago, October 27, 1962, the White House Situation Room, located in the basement of the West Wing, was informed that five of six Soviet medium-range nuclear missile sites in Cuba were "fully operational."

The information, which meant most of the southeastern United States was within range of twenty 1 megaton nuclear warheads, was made available to President John F. Kennedy by the Central Intelligence Agency.

Later in an afternoon meeting in the Cabinet Room, General Maxwell Taylor, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, advised President Kennedy to authorize massive air strikes on Cuba by Monday morning.

The General qualified the advice of the Joint Chiefs by adding: 

"unless there in irrefutable evidence that offensive weapons are being dismantled."

Adding fuel to the fire for a military response, news came to the afternoon meeting of EXCOM that a U-2 piloted by Major Rudolf Anderson* was shot down by Soviet SAM (surface-to-air) missiles as he was returning from a mission over Cuba.

Anderson, who was 35 years old, died at 11:19 a.m. as a result of shrapnel from the exploding Soviet missile puncturing his pressure suit causing it to decompress at high altitude.  Soviet Major Ivan Gerchenov gave the order to shoot down the U-2 after being unable to get a response from higher authorities.  

Robert Kennedy later wrote...

"The President....was more disturbed by the death of Major Anderson...than he was worried about Khrushchev.  He asked the Defense Department to find out if Anderson had a wife and family."  

When JFK received information that Major Anderson was married with 2 sons, ages 3 and 5, he said to Dave Powers...

"He had a boy about the same age as John, Jr."


*Major Rudolf  'Rudy' Anderson (1927-1962), was born in Greenville, SC and graduated from Clemson University.  In 1962, he was in the 4080 Strategic Reconnaissance Wing. He was honored after death with the 1st Air Force Cross and the Distinguished Service Medal. 

Range of Soviet

Medium Range Ballistic Missiles

CIA Map