0 - The Black Vault

THE BDM CORPORATION
CHAPTER 2
US FOREIGN POLICY
A. INTRODUCTION
Ourt policy in Vietnam is the same as it was one
year ago and. it is the same as it was ten years
ago. That policy [is] to assure the independence of
South Vietnam in the face of communist subversion and
aggressiop.1/
Lyndon B. Johnson
President of the United States,
1965.
Aspiring to world hegemony, the US holds out
dollars in one hand to entice people and brandishes the
atomic bomb in the other to menace the world. The
Tr man Doctrine, Marshall Plan; NATO Pact, and Programs
for Southeast Asia are all US maneuvers aimed at preparing
for a third world war. 2/
Ho Chi Minh
S~lected Writings
(February 1951)
Throughout the period of this study, the fundamental US policy with
respect to Vietnam, and for that matter for tn8 whole of Indochina, was to
assure and promote its self-determination and independence in the face of
communist-inspired subversion and aggression. Although the official pronouncements
from six different presidential administrations reinforced this
broad fundamental policy, there were some clear variations within that
policy over time.
Initially, the goal was an indcpendent (that is, independence
within the French Union) non-communist Vietnam, later an independent
non-communist South Vietnam leading to a unified Vietnam, then
simply to an independent non-communist South Vietnam, and finally an
I] independent South Vietnam not necessarily non-communist. So too the policy
with respect to negotiations changed from one of refusing to negotiate "to
ratify terror", to seeking negotiations on American terms, and finally to
negotiating at almost any price.3/
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