JFK Wrote That The Communists in South Vietnam Were Terrorists

[Benjamin Cole]

JFK's legacy has been hijacked by many, so it is good to remember President Kennedy in his own words, and writing.

In this letter to South Vietnam President Ngo Dinh Diem, written late December 1961, Kennedy pledges US support for South Vietnam and notes the "deliberate savagery of the communist programs of assassination, kidnapping and wanton violence."

JFK added that "the campaign of force and terror now being waged against your people and your Government is supported and directed from outside by the authorities at Hanoi."

JFK ardently opposed communism and terror in 1961, and would until his death.

Had JFK survived, he would have not changed in these regards.

The letter: 


Dear Mr. President,

“I have received your recent letter in which you described so cogently the dangerous conditions caused by North Vietnam’s effort to take over your country. The situation in your embattled country is well known to me and to the American people. We have been deeply disturbed by the assault on your country. Our indignation has mounted as the deliberate savagery of the communist programs of assassination, kidnapping and wanton violence became clear.

Your letter underlines what our own information has convincingly shown – that the campaign of force and terror now being waged against your people and your Government is supported and directed from outside by the authorities at Hanoi. They have thus violated the provisions of the Geneva Accords designed to ensure peace in Vietnam and to which they bound themselves in 1954.

At that time, the United States, although not a party to the Accords, declared that it “would view any renewal of the aggression in violation of the Agreements with grave concern and as seriously threatening international peace and security”. We continue to maintain that view.

In accordance with that declaration, and in response to your request, we are prepared to help the Republic of Vietnam to protect its people and to preserve its independence. We shall promptly increase our assistance to your defense effort as well as help relieve the destruction of the floods which you describe. I have already given the orders to get these programs underway.

The United States, like the Republic of Vietnam, remains devoted to the cause of peace and our primary purpose is to help your people maintain their independence. If the Communist authorities in North Vietnam will stop their campaign to destroy the Republic of Vietnam, the measures we are taking to assist your defense efforts will no longer be necessary. We shall seek to persuade the Communists to give up their attempts to force and subversion. In any case, we are confident that the Vietnamese people will preserve their independence and gain the peace and prosperity for which they have sought so hard and so long.”

Signed,
John F. Kennedy
December 14th 1961

[Steve M. Galbraith]

Anyone wanting to read up on the assassination would be wise to read at least one objective book on JFK's presidency and not this nonsensical conspiracist history that portrays JFK as someone who didn't believe in the Cold War/containment policies. He was an anti-communist not an anti- anti-communist. The Douglas portrayal is simply a fantasy, make believe.

The idea that he was just going to walk away from South Vietnam, abandon it, that he was going make nice with Castro (the Kennedys wanted him dead, period), that he didn't believe that the Soviets and Chinese and others were a threat to the West is just hooey.

JFK in the speech he was to make in Dallas before Oswald shot him:

"About 70 percent of our military assistance goes to nine key countries located on or near the borders of the Communist bloc – nine countries confronted directly or indirectly with the threat of Communist aggression – Viet-Nam, Free China, Korea, India, Pakistan, Thailand, Greece, Turkey, and Iran. No one of these countries possesses on its own the resources to maintain the forces which our own Chiefs of Staff think needed in the common interest. Reducing our efforts to train, equip, and assist their armies can only encourage Communist penetration and require in time the increased overseas deployment of American combat forces."

That's not just political boilerplate, something to dismiss; it's someone who believes in containment not someone who wants to abandon it. 

Here's a good book on his presidency: