Following a trip to Vietnam at President John F. Kennedy's request, Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield (D-Montana) becomes the first U.S. official to refuse to make an optimistic public comment on the progress of the war. Originally a supporter of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem, Mansfield changed his opinion of the situation after his visit. He claimed that the $2 billion the United States had poured into Vietnam during the previous seven years had accomplished nothing. He placed blame squarely on the Diem regime for its failure to share power and win support from the South Vietnamese people. He suggested that Americans, despite being motivated by a sincere desire to stop the spread of communism, had simply taken the place formerly occupied by the French colonial power in the minds of many Vietnamese. Mansfield's change of opinion surprised and irritated President Kennedy.
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Senator Mansfield pronounces American aid to South Vietnam wasted
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This Week in History, Dec 2 - Dec 8
- Dec 02, 1962
- Senator Mansfield pronounces American aid to South Vietnam wasted
- Dec 02, 1963
- South Vietnamese leaders order a temporary halt to the strategic hamlet program
- Dec 03, 1962
- Report maintains that Viet Cong are prepared for a long war
- Dec 03, 1965
- Memorandum outlines terms for bombing halt
- Dec 04, 1966
- Viet Cong attack Tan Son Nhut airport
- Dec 04, 1967
- Riverine force surrounds Viet Cong battalion
- Dec 05, 1964
- Army Captain awarded first Medal of Honor for action in Vietnam
- Dec 05, 1970
- North Vietnam announces it will not be intimidated by U.S. bombing
- Dec 06, 1961
- Operation Farm Gate combat missions authorized
- Dec 06, 1972
- Fighting continues in South Vietnam while negotiators talk in Paris
- Dec 07, 1964
- Situation deteriorates in South Vietnam
- Dec 07, 1965
- McNamara predicts that more U.S. troops will be needed
- Dec 08, 1965
- Operation Tiger Hound launched
- Dec 08, 1966
- North Vietnam rejects Johnson's prisoner exchange proposal
- Dec 08, 1969
- Nixon declares Vietnam War is ending
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