LYCOS RETRIEVER 
John F. Kennedy: Vietnam War
built 182 days ago
In South East Asia, Kennedy followed Eisenhower's lead by using limited military action to fight the Communist forces ostensibly led by Ho Chi Minh. Proclaiming a fight against the spread of Communism, Kennedy enacted policies providing political, economic, and military support for the unstable French-installed South Vietnamese government, which included sending 16,000 military advisors and U.S. Special Forces to the area. Kennedy ... agreed to the use of free-fire zones, napalm, defoliants and jet planes. U.S. involvement in the area continually escalated until regular U.S. forces were directly fighting the Vietnam War in the next administration. The Kennedy Administration increased military support, but the South Vietnamese military was unable to make headway against the pro-independence Viet-Minh and Viet Cong forces. By July 1963, Kennedy faced a crisis in Vietnam.
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Kennedy now had serious doubts about his Vietnam policy. He told Kenneth O'Donnell and Mike Mansfield that he intended to get out of Vietnam. Robert S. McNamara, the Secretary of Defense... thought that Kennedy would withdraw once he was re-elected.
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Kennedy ... used limited military action to contain the spread of communism. Determined to stand firm against the spread of communism, Kennedy continued the previous administration's policy of political, economic, and military support for the unstable South Vietnamese government, which included sending military advisers and U.S. special forces to the area. U.S. involvement in the area continually escalated until regular U.S. forces were directly fighting the Vietnam War in the next administration.
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Backed by his father and "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, his maternal grandfather and ex-mayor of Boston, Kennedy campaigned hard for a seat in the U.S. Congress. With his heroics in the war as a plus, he handily defeated his opponents.
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Kennedy hoped to fight in the war but in the spring of 1941 he was rejected by the U.S. Army because of the back injury he had received at Harvard. Determined to see active service, he passed the U.S. Navy physical examination after a five-month program of special exercise.
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The Warren Commission ... stated that a 3rd bullet was fired, striking Kennedy in the head and killing him. The majority of witnesses agreed that the last shot fired hit Kennedy in the head, although there was much dispute as to the direction from which that bullet came.
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Vietnam War