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Originally Posted by ngdawg
Whre in those Kennedy interviews does he state that he increased the "police action" in Vietnam from 500 US troops to 16,000?
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These are probably Kennedy's last public words on the subject, in an answer to a reporter during his final news conference, on 11/14/63:
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Q. Following up that, sir, would you give us your appraisal of the situation in South Viet-Nam now, since the coup, and the purposes for the Honolulu conference?
THE PRESIDENT. Because we do have a new situation there, and a new government, we hope, an increased effort in the war. The purpose of the meeting at Honolulu--Ambassador Lodge will be there, General Harkins will be there, Secretary McNamara and others, and then, as you know, later Ambassador Lodge will come here--is to attempt to assess the situation: what American policy should be, and what our aid policy should be, how we can intensify the struggle, how we can bring Americans out of there.
Now, that is our object, to bring Americans home, permit the South Vietnamese to maintain themselves as a free and independent country, and permit democratic forces within the country to operate--which they can, of course, much more freely when the assault from the inside, and which is manipulated from the north, is ended. So the purpose of the meeting in Honolulu is how to pursue these objectives.
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Now what is it that you are trying to do with this? The man was suddenly killed. Before he died, he state his intent for the direction of troop levels in Vietnam, as I documented in the quotes from his last two news conferences, in my last post.
If he had not been killed, and had done the opposite as far as troop levels in Vietnam, of wha the said he planned to do, I could see where you are trying to take your srgument. That is not how things went. He did not live to do anything beyond what he said he planned to do.
What influences your apparently unwavering opinion on this? Is it the interpretation of others? Who are they?