JFK assassinated in Dallas
On this day President John F.Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas.Kennedy took office on January 20 1961.From the start of his term he was faced with a deteriorating situation in Southeast Asia in which both Laos and South Vietnam were threatened by communist insurgencies.
In July 1962 Kennedys roving ambassador W.Averell Harriman negotiated an international agreement that arranged for a neutral coalition government in Laos.Kennedy was less successful in South Vietnam where U.S.
military advisers had been training the South Vietnamese Army since 1954.The government of South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem was threatened by a communist-dominated guerrilla movement called the National Liberation Front.In 1961 Kennedy demonstrated Americas commitment to Diems government by increasing the number of military advisers from 500 to 15000 and ordering them into combat.
By late 1963 Kennedy realized that Diem was more interested in maintaining his own power than in defeating the communists so Kennedy did nothing to stop dissident South Vietnamese generals from planning a coup against Diem.The coup began on November 1 and was successful Diem was killed in the process.President Kennedy himself was assassinated only three weeks later.There has been much conjecture about what Kennedy ultimately would have done about the worsening situation in Vietnammany have asserted that he would not have escalated the war as did his successor Lyndon B.
Johnson.There were more than 16000 advisers and other U.S.military personnel in South Vietnam when Kennedy was assassinated.
Under Johnson who said he was continuing Kennedys policies on Southeast Asia that number grew to over 500000 by 1969.
