Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) was the 34th President of the United States, who served two terms from 1953 to 1961. Prior to his presidency, Eisenhower was a lifelong military man, commanding the D-Day invasion while serving as Supreme Allied Commander in Europe during World War II.
In February 1954, President Eisenhower declared, "I cannot conceive of a greater tragedy for America than to get heavily involved now in an all-out war in any of those regions." Though he sent no U.S. troops to the Vietnam region, he authorized military aid to the French. After France surrendered to the Viet Minh, Eisenhower's administration aided anti-communist leader Ngo Dinh Diem in consolidating power in Saigon. |
John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) was the 35th President of the United States. Elected in 1960 at the age of 43, he became the youngest person ever to be voted into the White House. Kennedy served from 1961 until his assassination in November 1963.
During his years as president, Kennedy tripled the amount of American economic and military aid to the South Vietnamese and increased the number of U.S. military advisors in Indochina. He refused to withdraw from the escalating conflict in Vietnam because, he said, "to withdraw from that effort would mean a collapse not only of South Vietnam, but Southeast Asia. So, we are going to stay there." |
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973) was the 36th President of the United States, assuming the office after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in November 1963. Prior to serving as Kennedy's vice president.
He inherited the escalating crisis in Vietnam. Despite promises to bring a swift end to American involvement in Indochina, Johnson steadily increased the number of U.S. troops deployed to Vietnam, hoping to ensure a U.S. victory before withdrawing forces. By the end of his second term as president, his hopes for bringing an end to the war in Vietnam had dissolved. On March 31st, 1968, at the height of the Vietnam War, Johnson announced to the American people that he wouldn't seek reelection. |
Richard M. Nixon (1913–1994) was the 37th President of the United States. Prior to his presidency, he also served as Dwight Eisenhower's vice president.
In his first term as president, Richard Nixon promised the American public that he would reduce U.S. troop levels in Vietnam. He pursued a plan he called "Vietnamization," whereby the U.S. would gradually withdraw from the war, leaving the South Vietnamese army to shoulder the bulk of the fighting. Despite his pledge to bring American GIs home, American ground troop levels in Vietnam remained high and the Nixon administration expanded the war into the neighboring countries of Laos and Cambodia. In 1973, during Nixon's final year in office, the last U.S. combat soldiers left Vietnam, but military advisors and some Marines remained. Ultimately, Nixon’s presidency ended with his resignation in 1974. Gerald R. Ford (1974 – 1977) 38th president
Congress cut military aid to South Vietnam significantly during Ford’s presidency. Although it had been promised by the Nixon administration, Congress also forbade further U.S. involvement in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. In April 1975, as South Vietnam was about to fall, President Ford made a last-ditch appeal to Congress asking for $722 million in military aid to essentially save the crumbling regime. However, in a face-to-face discussion between President Ford and Senate Foreign Relations Committee on April 14, 1975, the President’s request for aid was rejected. but On April 23, 1975, Ford declared the Vietnam War ended “as far as America is concerned”. Seven days later, Saigon was captured and South Vietnam fell to the communists |
Robert McNamara (June 9, 1916 – July 6, 2009) was the Secretary of Defense from 1961 until 1968. McNamara worked with President Kennedy and then President Johnson to increase American involvement in Vietnam. Helping to design the escalation of combat in 1965, McNamara was one of the top American officials responsible for the expansion of the Vietnam War. However, as he later stated, he harbored fears about the U.S. mission in Vietnam and doubted the policies he helped craft. Despite this, McNamara – along with many other administration officials – maintained a positive view on the war publically. Tension developed between President Johnson and McNamara over the conduct of the war. As a result, McNamara resigned from the Department of Defense on February 29, 1968.
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Henry Alfred Kissinger remains one of the most well-known figures associated with the Vietnam War. Serving as a consultant adviser to the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations, Kissinger is best remembered for his service under President Nixon as Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. Kissinger supported President Nixon’s “peace with honor” policy. Kissinger had been serving as the main American delegate in the Paris Peace Talks. Kissinger established dialogue with Lê Đức Thọ, a communist party official. In August 1969, secret talks began between the Americans and the North Vietnamese. Then, North Vietnam and the United States were able to come to an agreement in October 1972. Kissinger presented the agreement and – despite public opposition from President Thiệu – declared that “peace is at hand,” just in time for the 1972 presidential election. Shortly after, the Paris Peace Accords were signed on in January 1973.
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Ho Chi Minh was founder of the Viet Minh (1941) and leader of the North Vietnamese insurgency against South Vietnam. He served as president for 25 years, becoming a symbol of Vietnam’s struggle for unification during a long and costly conflict with the strongly anti-Communist regime in South Vietnam and its powerful ally, the United States. Ho Chi Minh means “He who brings light,” and he was determined to reunite Vietnam under communist rule.
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Le Duan was more militant than Ho Chi Minh and Vo Nguyen Giap. He pushed for a “war of reunification” against the Ngo Dinh Diem government in Saigon and its American backers. The Viet Cong’s campaign of insurgency, assassinations and terrorism in 1959-61 was directed chiefly by Le. After the death of Ho Chi Minh in 1969, Le became the undisputed head of the North Vietnamese government. He pursued the Vietnam War until its victorious conclusion in 1975. Le continued to lead post-war Vietnam for another decade, drawing it closer to the Soviet Union. He died in 1986.
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Ngo Dinh Diem declared himself President of the Republic of Vietnam on October 26, 1956. At first, Diem was a good president by building new schools and helping the economy. However, the number of people who didn’t like him grew. Since Diem was a Catholic, he didn’t agree with the Buddhists. By 1959, over half the country was against him.
Uprisings grew and became more frequen,t and in August of 1963 the Americans realized they could not back Diem anymore since he was an ineffective leader. Troops who were an enemy to Diem had Diem and his brother assassinated. |
General Duong Van Minh was a South Vietnamese general and a key member of the military coup that overthrew South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem in November 1963. In April 1975 he succeeded Nguyen Van Thieu as president just days before North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon. Although he was credited with having authorized the execution of Diem and Diem’s brother Ngo Dinh Nhu in 1963, Minh proved to be a cautious and ineffectual leader. After Saigon fell in 1975, Minh was placed in detention. In 1983, he was allowed to emigrate to France. He later moved to Pasadena, California.
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General Nguyen Van Thieu was elected president of South Vietnam in a general election in 1967. He wanted to make his government somewhat more representative than it had been and to unify it politically and organizationally. After the Paris Peace Talks, the U.S. agreed to withdraw its forces from Vietnam in April 1973. Thieu's government survived only two more years. With the North Vietnamese Army encircling Saigon, Thieu officially resigned on April 21, 1975, and fled South Vietnam five days later. After living in Taiwan and London, he lived in the U.S. (Boston, Massachusetts) until his death in 2001.
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