American Political Leaders

Presidents during the Vietnam War- Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961), John F.

Kennedy (1961-1963), Lyndon Baines Johnson (1963-1969) , and Richard Nixon
(1969-1975)

Perspectives: Your main concern is stopping the spread of communism in Vietnam

through proxy wars spurred by Russian communism. Each of your predecessors has
had different reactions to the war. You fear thedomino theory; if Vietnam falls to
communism, many other countries will follow. North Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh must be
stopped!

Letter:
Letter from President Johnson to Ho Chi Minh
Dear Mr. President:
I am writing to you in the hope that the conflict in Vietnam can be brought to an end.
That conflict has already taken a heavy toll-in lives lost, in wounds inflicted, in property
destroyed, and in simple human misery. If we fail to find a just and peaceful solution,
history will judge us harshly.
Therefore, I believe that we both have a heavy obligation to seek earnestly the path to
peace. It is in response to that obligation that I am writing directly to you.
We have tried over the past several years, in a variety of ways and through a number of
channels, to convey to you and your colleagues our desire to achieve a peaceful
settlement. For whatever reasons, these efforts have not achieved any results. . . .

Quotes:
"The picture of the world's greatest superpower killing or seriously injuring 1,000 noncombatants
a week while trying to pound a tiny backward nation into submission on an issue whose merits
are hotly disputed, is not a pretty one."
- Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in a private letter to President Lyndon B. Johnson,
May 1967

"I cannot conceive of a greater tragedy for America than to get heavily involved now in an all-out
war in any of those regions.
By April, however, his administration revisited the question of direct intervention in the war.
Though he sent no U.S. troops to the region, he authorized military aid to the French
-Eisenhower on US involvement in the war 1954

"If I left [the war in Vietnam] and let the communists take over South Vietnam, then I would be
seen as a coward and my nation would be seen as an appeaser, and we would both find it
impossible to accomplish anything for anybody anywhere on the entire globe."
- President Lyndon B. Johnson, 1964
North Vietnam cannot defeat or humiliate the United States. Only Americans can do that.
-Richard Nixon, speech, November 3, 1969

The bastards have never been bombed like they're going to be bombed this time.
- Richard Nixon, statement to White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman and Attorney General
John Mitchell, April 4, 1972