"These people who say that we ought to withdraw from Vietnam are wholly wrong because if we withdrew from Vietnam the communists would control Vietnam, pretty soon Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Malaya would go and all of southeast Asia would be under the control of the communists. Another domination of the Chinese. Then India, Burma would be the next target. So I think we should stay." --- JFK to Walter Cronkite, September 2, 1963.
Was JFK lying to the American people about this? Was he going to run on staying and then once elected leave? If so then the JFK conspiracists are describing one of most duplicitous people ever to be President (up to that point). They don't even seem to realize it.
From what I've read, JFK didn't want to send combat/infantry troops to Vietnam; in fact, he was adamantly against it. But he also didn't want to see it fall to the communists. As he said above, it would affect all of southeast Asia. Not intending to send troops is not the same as intending to withdraw. Again, as he said above, those advocating withdrawal were "wholly wrong." Not a little wrong, or a lot wrong; but wholly wrong.
Go to the 14:30 mark to hear the above:
