November 22, 2013

Trivia for Progressives…

By Mike

Who got the United States into Vietnam?

Who escalated our involvement in Vietnam?

Who got the United States out of Vietnam?

I’ll look for your answers in comments…

Statists only please.

Cheating is OK because I expect it from you.

About Mike

Background is in Media with a little History Major thrown in just to be annoying. View all posts by Mike

This entry was posted on Friday, November 22nd, 2013 at 2:06 pm and tagged with Bush, Carter, Clinton, Eisenhower, Ford, JFK, Johnson, kennedy, nixon, obama, Reagan, Truman, Vietnam War and posted in News, politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

3 responses to “Trivia for Progressives…”

David
November 23rd, 2013 at 9:01 am

Didn’t that stupid George Bush get us into Vietnam?

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- Mike
  November 23rd, 2013 at 9:10 am
  
  And WWII.
  
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- Mike
  November 23rd, 2013 at 2:11 pm
  
  Einsenhower (R-PE) put the first advisors into Vietnam in 1955.
  
  Kennedy (D-MA) made it official and greatly expanded our presence:
  
  In 1961, Kennedy agreed that America should finance an increase in the size of the South Vietnamese Army from 150,000 to 170,000. He also agreed that an extra 1000 US military advisors should be sent to South Vietnam to help train the South Vietnamese Army. Both of these decisions were not made public as they broke the agreements made at the 1954 Geneva Agreement.
  
  It was during Kennedy’s presidency that the ‘Strategic Hamlet’ programme was introduced. This failed badly and almost certainly drove a number of South Vietnamese peasants into supporting the North Vietnamese communists. This forcible moving of peasants into secure compounds was supported by Diem and did a great deal to further the opposition to him in the South. American television reporters relayed to the US public that ‘Strategic Hamlet’ destroyed decades, if not hundreds, of years of village life in the South and that the process might only take half-a-day. Here was a super-power effectively orchestrating the forced removal of peasants by the South Vietnamese Army who were not asked if they wanted to move. To those who knew about US involvement in Vietnam and were opposed to it, ‘Strategic Hamlet’ provided them with an excellent propaganda opportunity.
  
  Kennedy was informed about the anger of the South Vietnamese peasants and was shocked to learn that membership of the NLF had increased, according to US Intelligence, by 300% in a two year time span – the years when ‘Strategic Hamlet’ was in operation. Kennedy’s response was to send more military advisors to Vietnam so that by the end of 1962 there were 12,000 of these advisors in South Vietnam. As well as sending more advisors to South Vietnam, Kennedy also sent 300 helicopters with US pilots. They were told to avoid military combat at all costs but this became all but impossible to fulfill.
  
  Kennedy’s presidency also saw the response to the Diem government by some Buddhist monks. On June 11th 1963, Thich Quang Duc, a Buddhist monk, committed suicide on a busy Saigon road by being burned to death. Other Buddhist monks followed his example in August 1963. Television reported these events throughout the world. A member of Diem’s government said:
  
  “Let them burn, and we shall clap our hands.”
  
  Another member of Diem’s government was heard to say that he would be happy to provide Buddhist monks with petrol.
  
  http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/kennedy_vietnam.htm
  
  Johnson (D-TX) took it to the level we all know it to have been.
  
  Nixon (R-CA) removed the United States from involvement.
  
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