At a meeting of the National Security Council, President John F. Kennedy is asked by his advisers to accept "as our real and ultimate objective the defeat of the Vietcong." The Joint Chiefs of Staff estimated that 40,000 U.S. troops could clean up "the Vietcong threat" and another 120,000 could cope with possible North Vietnamese or Chinese Communist intervention. Kennedy wanted to prevent the fall of South Vietnam to the Communist insurgents, but decided to send General Maxwell Taylor to Vietnam to study the situation. Ultimately, Kennedy would send advisers, helicopters, and other military support to South Vietnam to aid President Ngo Dinh Diem in his fight against the Viet Cong.
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- Automotive
- Blind driver breaks land-speed record, 2008
- Civil War
- Rebels raid Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, 1862
- Cold War
- Reagan and Gorbachev meet in Reykjavik, 1986
- Crime
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- Disaster
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- General Interest
- Benedict Arnold and the Battle of Valcour Island, 1776
- Boer War begins in South Africa, 1899
- Pope opens Vatican II, 1962
- Apollo 7 launched, 1968
- Hollywood
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- Literary
- Elmore Leonard is born, 1925
- Music
- Bruce Springsteen scores his first pop hit with "Born to Run", 1975
- Old West
- Meriwether Lewis dies along the Natchez Trace, Tennessee, 1809
- Presidential
- Bill Clinton marries Hillary Rodham, 1975
- Sports
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- Vietnam War
- Viet Minh take control in the north, 1954
- Kennedy ponders the Vietnam situation, 1961
- World War I
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- World War II
- United States defeats Japanese in the Battle of Cape Esperance, 1942
Oct 11, 1961:
Kennedy ponders the Vietnam situation
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This Week in History, Oct 11 - Oct 17
- Oct 11, 1954
- Viet Minh take control in the north
- Oct 11, 1961
- Kennedy ponders the Vietnam situation
- Oct 12, 1967
- Dean Rusk criticizes Congress while fighting continues in South Vietnam
- Oct 12, 1970
- Nixon announces another round of troop withdrawals
- Oct 12, 1972
- Racial violence breaks out aboard U.S. Navy ships
- Oct 13, 1966
- McNamara claims that war is progressing satisfactorily
- Oct 13, 1970
- Sir Robert Thompson advises President Nixon
- Oct 14, 1964
- Khrushchev ousted as premier of Soviet Union
- Oct 14, 1968
- U.S. servicemen sent to Vietnam for second tours
- Oct 15, 1965
- First draft card burned
- Oct 15, 1966
- Operation Attleboro continues in Tay Ninh Province
- Oct 15, 1969
- National Moratorium demonstrations held across the United States
- Oct 16, 1968
- Bombing halt discussed
- Oct 16, 1973
- Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho awarded Nobel Peace Prize
- Oct 17, 1966
- President Johnson goes to Asia
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