🚀 go-pugleaf

On Sat, 5 Jun 2004 10:29:23 -0500, "Kevin Childers" <kchilder@mail.win.org>
wrote:

>
>John F. Kennedy...  started the Vietnam conflict in 1962. Vietnam never attacked us.

That statement is akin to saying that Clinton built up the economy and Bush tore
it down.    Me?   I blame the French government's penchant for colonization.

In 1945, with an Allied victory apparent, the Japanese interned French troops
and civil servants, and assumed the positions of authority they had previously
left to the French. They also made some feeble attempts to establish a
Vietnamese nationalist government, including offering a nominal grant of
independence in order to secure some Vietnamese support. The Japanese appointed
Bao Dai to head this "independent" state. Bao Dai had previously been the
French-controlled emperor of the southern part of Vietnam. The Japanese didn't
have much time or inclination to build support for Bao Dai which meant he was
incredibly weak. 

The Communist victory in China led Washington to exhibit less circumspection in
assessing the nature of the political struggle in Vietnam. Anticommunist-fever
preempted everything else. Although Washington had never considered Bao Dai
capable of delivering national support for his movement, by mid-1949, the Truman
Administration began to depict him as a staunch patriot, capable of standing up
to Ho Chi Min and worthy of American respect and aid. Seven months before the
Elysee Agreements had been ratified, the US indicated its support of the Bao Dai
regime. On February 7, 1950, a week after the ratification, the US extended
diplomatic recognition to Bao Dai's government. 

Military support also started. American bombers, military advisors and
technicians by the hundreds were to follow. From 1950 to 1954, authorized US aid
had reached $1.4 billion and constituted 78 percent of the French budget for the
war. The extensive written history of the American role in Indochina produced by
the Defense Department, which later became known as the Pentagon Papers,
concluded that the decision to provide aid to France "directly involved" the US
in Vietnam and "set" the course for future American policy.

Please let me restate: From 1950 to 1954, authorized US aid had reached $1.4
billion and constituted 78 percent of the French budget for the war.