ThirdTerm
Well-Known Member
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy decided to conduct a “counterinsurgency operation” in South Vietnam to cope with a deteriorating military and political situation in the country. There were 16,000 US military personnel supporting the South Vietnamese Army in its struggle against a Communist insurgency in 1963, the last year of his presidency. After Kennedy’s death, his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson acted to escalate US involvement in the war, sending tens of thousands of ground troops to South Vietnam from the United States. By 1968, the United States had 548,000 troops in Vietnam. Most historians see this as a major mistake made by Lyndon B. Johnson.