Table Of ContentThe U.S. Government and the
Vietnam W ar
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
CHARLES H. PERCY, Illinois, Chairman
HOWARD H. BAKER, Jr., Tennessee CLAIBORNE PELL, Rhode Island
JESSE HELMS, North Carolina JOSEPH R. BIDEN, Jr., Delaware
RICHARD G. LUGAR, Indiana JOHN GLENN, Ohio
CHARLES McC. MATHIAS, Jr., Maryland PAUL S. SARBANES, Maryland
NANCY L. KASSEBAUM, Kansas EDWARD ZORINSKY, Nebraska
RUDY BOSCHWITZ, Minnesota PAUL E TSONGAS, Massachusetts
LARRY PRESSLER, South Dakota ALAN CRANSTON, California
FRANK H. MURKOWSKI, Alaska CHRISTOPHER H. DODD, Connecticut
PAULA HAWKINS, Florida
Scott Cohen, Staff Director
Geryld B. Christianson, Minority Staff Director
THE U.S. GOVERNMENT AND
THE VIETNAM WAR
Executive and Legislative Roles
and Relationships
PART I: 1945-1960
W illiam Conrad Gibbons
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street,
Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, Guildford, Surrey
Preface copyright © 1986 by Princeton University Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data will be found
on the last printed page of this book
First Princeton Paperback printing, 1986
First Princeton hardcover printing, 1986
LCC 86-3270
ISBN 0-691-07714-2 ISBN 0-691-02254-2 (pbk.)
This book was prepared for the Committee on Foreign Relations of the United States
Senate by the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress. It was
originally published by the U.S. Government Printing Office in April 1984. The
"Letter of Submittal” and "Foreword” are deleted and some typographical corrections
have been made. Otherwise, contents and pagination are the same.
Clothbound editions of Princeton University Press books are printed on acid-free
paper, and binding materials are chosen for strength and durability. Paperbacks,
while satisfactory for personal collections, are not usually suitable
for library rebinding.
Printed in the United States of America by Princeton University Press,
Princeton, New Jersey
For my mother
Jessie Conrad Gibbons
and in memory of my father
Howard Kemper Gibbons
PREFACE
This is a study of U.S. Government policymaking during the 30
years of the Vietnam war, 1945-75, beginning with the 1945-60 pe
riod. Although focusing on the course of events in Washington and
between Washington and U.S. officials on the scene, it also depicts
major events and trends in Vietnam to which the U.S. was respond
ing, as well as the state of American public opinion and public activity
directed at supporting or opposing the war.
The purpose of the study is not to judge or to assess responsibility,
but it does seek to locate responsibility, to describe roles, and to ex
amine attitudes and assumptions. The goal is to provide a fair, accu
rate account of policy decisions and the effects of those decisions.
Conclusions are stated only when this contributes to a better under
standing of U.S. attitudes and actions, and then only when there is
supporting evidence. This may not satisfy those who are hopeful of
confirming or justifying a particular point of view, and it will probably
disappoint those who seek ready explanations and answers. It is, how
ever, consistent not only with the canons of good scholarship, but with
the state of available knowledge. Vital information still is being with
held by the government, and the drawing of conclusions therefore con
tinues to be problematical.
In keeping with the nonpolitical, nonpartisan approach that befits
a work of this nature, references in the text to "internationalist” or
"nationalist,” "interventionist” or "noninterventionist,” or the use of
such adjectives as "influential” or "powerful,” are used for descriptive
purposes rather than as political labels.
This first part begins with President Truman’s decision at the end
of World War II to accept French reoccupation of Indochina rather
than to seek the international trusteeship favored earlier by Presi
dent Roosevelt. This is followed by a discussion of U.S. support of the
French role, and of increased U.S. determination, especially after the
Communist victory in China and the Korean war, to prevent Com
munist expansion in Asia. There is then a detailed account of the
events of 1954-55 when the French, after the battle of Dien Bien Phu,
withdrew from Vietnam and the U.S. stepped into the leading role.
Finally, there is a discussion of the Eisenhower administration’s ef
forts to support the South Vietnamese Government, and of the declin
ing fortunes of that government and growing doubts about the U.S.
program as the 1950s came to an end.
This study was prepared for the Committee on Foreign Relations of
the United States Senate by the Congressional Research Service of
the Library of Congress at the request of Senator John Sparkman,
then chairman of the committee, and succeeding chairmen, Senators
Frank Church, Charles Percy, and Richard Lugar, who were assisted
by staff directors Pat Holt, Norvill Jones, William Bader, Edward
Sanders, Scott Cohen, and Jeff Bergner and by editors Jerry Ehren-
freund and Uwe Timpke. The committee has given strong and contin
uous support to the project, but has never sought to influence its con
tent.
At the Congressional Research Service, the Director, Gilbert Gude,
who served in Congress during the Vietnam war, and the Chief of the
Foreign Affairs and National Defense Division, Dr. Stanley Hegin-
botham, have provided the help and encouragement required for an
undertaking of this size and complexity, and their contribution is
greatly appreciated. James Robinson, Coordinator of Review, and
Hugh Wolff, Alva Bowen, Dr. Joel Woldman and Robert Goldich, Sec
tion Heads, were also very helpful, as were Susan Finsen, Coordinator
of Management and Administration and Edgar Glick. Others who
contributed were Warren Lenhart, C. Winston Woodland, Ida Eustis,
Carolyn Hatcher, Cheryl Mobley, Phyllis Fitzgerald, and interns Con
nie Skowronski of Lawrence University and Vanesa Lide of Cornell
University.
The project has also received vital assistance from George Mason
University, where the author is a Visiting Professor, especially from
the Chair of the Public Affairs Department, Dr. Robert P. Clark, fol
lowed by Dr. Harold F. Gortner; the staff of Office Support Services,
Mary Blackwell, Director; and Byron Peters, Systems Engineer of the
Academic Computing Services. Also helpful were Susan Ragland and
Candace Brinkley.
Above all, the dedication and hard work of Anne Bonanno, the au
thor’s assistant and a member of the staff of Office Support Services,
deserve special praise. She has been responsible for transcribing in
terviews and for typing, proofing and coding the text, as well as the
myriad other tasks involved in this undertaking, and her help and
constant encouragement have been indispensable.
The author wants to express particular thanks to those former of
ficials of the executive and legislative branches who reviewed this
first volume and made suggestions for its improvement: Robert R.
Bowie a professor at Harvard University (now retired) and head of its
Center for International Affairs, who was Director of Policy Planning
in the State Department in the Eisenhower administration, and
Counselor of the State Department in the Johnson administration;
William P. Bundy, who served in the CIA in the 1950s, and was then
Assistant Secretary of Defense and Assistant Secretary of State for
East Asian and Pacific Affairs in the Johnson administration, after
which he served for 12 years as editor of Foreign Affairs; Andrew J.
Goodpaster, General, U.S. Army (Ret.), who was on the Eisenhower
White House staff, and served in many other posts, including Deputy
U.S. Commander in Vietnam and NATO Supreme Commander, and
is now President of the Institute for Defense Analyses; U. Alexis
Johnson, a career Foreign Service officer who served in many posi
tions in which he dealt with Southeast Asia, including Under Secre
tary of State, Deputy Ambassador to Vietnam, and Ambassador to
Thailand; Edward G. Lansdale, Major General, USAF (Ret.), who was
intimately involved with Vietnam for many years, during which he
served as a key adviser to U.S. and Vietnamese officials; the late Dr.
Francis O. Wilcox, Chief of Staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Com
mittee between the late 1940s and the mid 1950s, then Assistant Sec
retary of State and Vice Chairman of the Atlantic Council; Dr. Carl
Marcy, who served in the State Department during the 1940s, after
which he became a member of the staff of the Foreign Relations Com
mittee and succeeded Wilcox as Chief of Staff; and Mr. Boyd Craw
ford, Staff Administrator of the House Foreign Affairs Committee
during the entire 30 years of U.S. involvement in Vietnam (1945-75).
In addition, Dr. Robert Klaus, Executive Director of the Illinois Hu
manities Council offered many helpful suggestions for improving
style and manner of presentation.
Oral histories have been an important source of information, and
with the excellent assistance of Patricia McAdams, now an attorney,
and Dr. Anna Nelson, a historian, almost 150 personal interviews
were conducted with persons who served in the executive and legis
lative branches during the war, as well as several journalists who
covered the war. The cooperation of all those involved is deeply ap
preciated.
Archival assistance with this volume has been generously provided
by the Dwight D. Eisenhower Library, especially Dr. John Wickman,
Director, and Archivist David Haight; Dr. John Glennon, General Ed
itor of the Foreign Relations Series, Office of the Historian, Depart
ment of State; Nancy Bressler, Curator of Public Affairs Papers, See
ley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University; Sheryl Vogt,
Head of the Richard B. Russell Library, University Libraries, Univer
sity of Georgia; and the staff of the Legislative Records Division at
the National Archives.
The decision of Princeton University Press to publish this study will
be welcomed by all of those interested in furthering the examination
of the role of the United States in the Vietnam war, and for their help
with publication the author especially thanks Mr. Sanford Thatcher,
Editor-in-chief and Dr. Loren Hoekzema, Assistant to the Director for
Special Projects, as well as Professor Fred Greenstein of Princeton
University who has been most encouraging in his support for the proj
ect and for its publication by the Press.
