Mary's Mosaic: Entering Peter Janney's World of Fantasy

[Greg Burnham]

JFK was against unilateral American involvement in Indochina from before the days of the French defeat. There is no evidence that his personal position on the matter changed once he became president. In fact, the evidence is that he was politically astute enough to realize the difference between his "public position" and his actual position. Inasmuch as there was a discrepancy between the two, he would need to juggle for a time until he could take the action necessary to extricate us from the conflict. However, the official documents indicate withdrawal. Some of the public statements gave mixed messages for a time, but were beginning to introduce the idea of it "being their war to win or lose--not our war" as a first step toward reconciling the apparent ambiguity.

Even as a Senator, in response to then Secretary of State John Foster Dulles' pitch for American intervention in Vietnam, Kennedy argued that:

"...to pour money, materiel, and men into the jungles of Indochina without at least a remote prospect of victory would be dangerously futile and self destructive. Of course, all discussion of United States action assume the inevitability of such victory. Such assumptions are not unlike similar predictions of confidence which have lulled the American People for many years. I am frankly of the belief that no amount of American military assistance in Indochina can conquer an enemy which is everywhere and at the same time nowhere, an enemy of the people which has the sympathy and covert support of the people."

He goes onto say that if the French persist in refusing to grant the people their independence and if the surrounding nations continue to remain aloof which they did "Then it is my hope that Secretary Dulles will recognize the futility of channeling American men and machines into that hopeless struggle."

Moreover, Speaker of the House, Tip O'neil says:

"And in my last conversation with him (JFK) I'll always remember it. He said, 'As soon as the election is over I'm going to get the boys out of Vietnam'. To myself, I've always said that there never would have been that great disaster that we had--the great loss of life--had he (JFK) lived."

This seems to me to be strong evidence that JFK remained consistent in his opposition to "war" -- be it an escalation of the Cold War or the prospect of actual war -- throughout his political career.

However, the reality of "gaining and holding public office" sometimes dictates various political subterfuges be employed...only to later be sorted out after election or re-election is successful. A distasteful reality? To be sure.