Was President Kennedy going to pull us out of Vietnam when he was shot?
Question by Diver Dan 1977: Was President Kennedy going to pull us out of Vietnam when he was shot?
We watched the movie JFK in class and my history teacher said that Oliver Stone is wrong when he says that JFK was going to pull out of Vietnam. The movie makes it look like Kennedy was assasinated because he wanted to pull us out of Vietnam and some people don’t want him to do that. Is she right (me teafcher) or is the movie JFK right? Pleeze help.
Best answer:
Answer by Mr. Curious
As a historian myself and someone that has studied Kennedy for twenty-five years I agree with your teacher. She is right and she is clearly well-read because most people think Kennedy was trying to end the Vietnam War–he wasn’t.
1. Kennedy was the most anti-communist president between Truman and Reagan.
2. Kennedy had already gotten involved in Cuba with the bay of Pigs invasion (albeit the ABORTED invasion) and the Cuban Missile Crisis–ALL to keep communism contained within its existing borders.
3. The Vietnam War, much like the Korean War before it, was a military conflict to limit the spread of communism.
4. Kennedy, like ALL presidents, said different things to different people to garner votes or to get certain legislation passed, but I do not for one second believe ANYTHING Oliver Stone says, or makes up as Stone often does, concerning Kennedy pulling out of Vietnam and leaving South Vietnam to the communists. To do so would result in HIM being labeled as the president who lost SE Asia to the communists just as Truman would be forever known as the president who “lost” China to the communists in 1949. Kennedy would not stand for that.
And there you have it.
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