Vietnam towards the “free world”. 51 Kennedy was worried about turning Vietnam into a full-fledged American commitment by “over militarisation” and an “over-americanisation” of the war. 52 Since his time as a Senator, Kennedy always believed in self-determination for Vietnam. At the time, he argued against French colonisation of Vietnam and was convinced that with the allowing of political and civil liberties, a non-communist movement would prosper. 53 It was this belief which spurred Kennedy into not wanting any more military involvement as he believed it “would compromise the Vietnamese nationalism of Diem’s cause”. 54 Kennedy’s rhetoric of non-military action was finally backed up with actions in October 1963, where Kennedy authorised military disengagement in Vietnam, he wanted to reduce the number of advisors in Vietnam back down to the numbers of early 1961. 55 In January 1963, at the State of the Union, preceding this decision to gradually withdraw, Kennedy stated that “the spearpoint of aggression has been blunted in South Vietnam”. 56 Part of the reasoning behind the withdrawal is Kennedy’s mindset over what America’s role was in Vietnam. Hess notes that Kennedy was “determined to draw a distinction between the U.S. supportive role and the military mission of the South Vietnamese”. 57
51 Freedman, p. 6. 52 Schlesinger, p. 839. 53 Anderson, p. 68-69. 54 Schlesinger, p. 839.
55 Howard, Jones, Death of a Generation: How the Assassinations of Diem and JFK prolonged the Vietnam War (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003) <https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/swansea- ebooks/detail.action?docID=271285> [accessed 6 November 2017], p. 330. 56 Schlesinger, p. 550. 57 Anderson, p. 81.
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