Kennedy, Johnson Administration United States North Vietnam's Secret War

The policies of American Government toward Vietnam had experienced a series of changes, transferring from supporting the anti-Japanese war of the Vietnamese people and counter-colonization, to helping France return to Indo-China and sustaining a big puppet government. Along with the expansion of Cold War to Asia and the formation of Cold War situation in Asia, the Truman Administration had issued a series of policies and documents about Southeast Asia, formulating for the first time in American history a system of comprehensive policies about Southeast Asia, which set the stage for US' future involvement in the Vietnamese war. The Eisenhower government's Vietnamese policy was an important collecting link for US to get involved into the Vietnamese War, which inherited the policies and guidelines concerning Indo-China and Southeast Asia of Truman Administration and, at the same time, with containing the expansion of communism as the goal and with the Domino theory as the foundation, supported Wu Tingyan to establish an anti-communism government in South Vietnam with massive financial resource and physical resource, thus increasingly involving US in the issues of Vietnam. With the gradual escalation of Vietnamese war and worsening of the military situation in South Vietnam, US's special warfare bordered on bankruptcy, which made it extremely difficult for the successor to withdraw from South Vietnam, but had to keep undertaking America's "obligation" in terms of Eisenhower's Vietnamese policies, and bogged in the Vietnamese battlefield deeply. For this made the Kennedy administration believe that attacking North Vietnam was the only way to save Vietnam, which might force Hanoi to stop aiding the liberation armed forces in the south, or even to order the south to stop resistance. But since Kennedy rejected to consider attacking North Vietnam before the 1964 election, facilitating secret war has become the only choice that could be made. The secret war was launched in step with the situational progressing in South Vietnam, and what the Washington authority cares about is accelerating the pace of stealthy activities instead of the concrete outcome of it, for according to them, the goal of the secret war was to give the North Vietnam a signal, and make Hanoi's authorities appraise the gain and loss of supporting the liberation armed forces in the south. Johnson assumed the reigns of government and continued his predecessor's policies, further expanding and supporting the secret war in North Vietnam. The outbreak of Tokyo Bay event brought US's secret war policy into the open, and the passing of Tokyo Bay resolution also Americanized Vietnamese war.The present thesis is composed of the foreword, the main text and the summary, in which the main text is divided into four parts.Part One: Evolution of American policies toward Vietnam shortly after World War II. From Truman's first involvement to Eisenhower's sinking into the mire of Vietnam War, to Kennedy and Johnson's expanded policies toward Vietnam, this part mainly expatiates on the evolution of American policies in Southeast Asia and Indo-China and analyzes the root for US to interfere with Vietnam's national affairs, which reflect the American decision-makers' fundamental ideas and faith, the core of which is to maintain and expand US' supremacy and to curb Communism.Part Two: The formulation and succession of the secret war strategy toward North Vietnam under Kennedy's and Johnson's reigns. The outbreak of Vietnamese war rendered the US several choices, but under the restriction of the cold war situation, and to balance its global benefit, US only launched a limited war in Vietnam. Since the time of Kennedy, the strategy of flexible response had taken the place of "the massive retaliation strategy" of the Eisenhower government, of which Vietnam became the proving ground. Secret war became Kennedy's favorite, who, in his tenure of presidency, formulated "34A" plan against North Vietnam, and started secret war. Johnson inherited the secret war plan formulated by Kennedy administration. Though the awful situation in South Vietnam compelled him to face the clamors within the government for bombarding North Vietnam, Johnson Administration finally chose to authorize the "34A" plan, further extending secret war against North Vietnam.Part Three: Implementation of secret strategy of Kennedy and Johnson Administration against North Vietnam. With the further worsening of situation in South Vietnamese, secret war, in the eyes of Washington, had become an important way to save the South Vietnam government and curb communism. Therefore, US established MACVSOG to carry out secret activities against North Vietnam through psychological warfare and secret marine military action.Part Four: The consequence and reasons for the failure of Kennedy and Johnson Administrations' secret war against North Vietnam. This part emphatically analyzed the consequence of Kennedy and Johnson Administrations' implementation of secret war, and analyzed inevitable failure of the secret war from the aspects of limitation of the targets and injustice of the secret war.