0 - The Black Vault

THE BDM CO.RPORATION
r
tj7-13
21
power, to make infiltration and aggression less appetizing to the potential
enemy.,
Of the three protocol states, the most important in the eyes of US
leadership. was the newly created South Vietnam.
Although SEATO was intentionally ambiguous on the point
of just what response would be made by tha members in the event of an armed
attack, it did provide Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon
with a justification fo;r subsequent US policy -- aid and military presence
in Vietnam.
Though n(. one seriously challanged US military and economic
aid provisions under the SEUTO
Treatj, the Johnson and Nixop administrations
came und'r fire for the use of US
ground combat forces in the conflict.
SEAFO may have delayed communist aggression in Southeast
Asia, but in the end,
the treaty organization did not deter the communists
from actively pursuing their goals there.
2. Phase 2: 1961 to Mid-1968
Early on in this phase, the overriding US objective was to limit
"involvement in what President Kennedy anc Secretary of Defense McNamara
regarded as essentially a Vietnamese war., In the spring of l962, the
military situation in South Vietnam was showing some signs of improvement,
and by mid-year the prospects looked bright for the RVNAF, To some, the
end to the insurgency seemed
in sight. although that optimism was not
without the recognition that there were unsolved political problems and
serious soft spots in areas of the military effort, US
leadership, both on
the scene in Vietnam and in Washington, was c)nfident though cautiously
optimistic.28/
During the same timeframe,
events in other parts of the world,
some ostensibly unrelated, were asserting direct relevance on US policy in
Vietnair. Developments in Berlin, Cuba and Ldos far overshaaowed Vietnam,
and forced the Kennedy Administration to put Vietnam in the perspective of
14
other US world interests.
_4
With respect to Indochina, the Kennedy Administration established
the following objectives:30/
* to seek the neutralization of Laos
* to avoid an open-ended Asian mairland land war