| From 1950 through the 1968 Tet Offensive, many high-ranking U.S. military officials questioned, criticized, and even opposed the American war against Vietnam. Beginning with the opposition of influential generals such as Matthew Ridgway and James Gavin, among others, to intervention in the early 1950s, a sizable number, if not most, U.S. service leaders were wary of fighting a war in Indochina. During the Kennedy years, while the president consistently intensified his commitment to the Diem regime in southern Vietnam, the military continued to hold serious reservations about sending American combat forces into Vietnam but, adjusting to political realities, followed the White House's lead and prepared for war there.;By the mid-1960s, when U.S. forces entered combat to save the Republic of Vietnam, many officers, including American war leaders in Saigon and the JCS in Washington, recognized the parlous situation they faced in Vietnam--a strong enemy and a feeble ally--and were aware that success was not forthcoming. At the same time, the military was deeply divided over the strategy to be used in Vietnam, with Marine leaders and others advocating a strategy of pacification while attacking General William Westmoreland's policy of attritional warfare.;By 1967, even as public optimism remained high, the U.S. military establishment was at odds with itself over Vietnam due to continued recognition of the obstacles to success and interservice feuds over strategy. Simultaneously, the military and the White House, both aware of the uncertain U.S. future in Vietnam and the political factors driving policy, began to seek ways to avoid blame for the coming disaster. With the 1968 Tet Offensive and huge controversy over the military's request for 206,000 more troops and activation of Reservists, the brass forced Lyndon Johnson to assume responsibility for his own inchoate policy. The legacy of Vietnam, then, includes military resistance to intervention, virulent interservice rivalries over strategy, consistent recognition of the problems of war in Vietnam, and deeply-strained civil-military relations. |
