Standing His Ground: Mike Mansfield's Opposition to the Vietnam War

Mike Mansfield’s interest in East and Southeast Asia started when he and about 100 fellow Marines were sent to China in 1922 to help solve a conflict between two warlords. During his years in the House and the Senate, Mansfield served on their foreign relations committees, and he made several trips to Southeast Asia at the direction of Presidents Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and John F. Kennedy. By the 1960s, he was considered a Senate expert on Indochina (Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam).

It was during these trips that Mansfield witnessed the devastation of the war and its effect on the Vietnamese people as well as U.S. troops. He also took note of the millions of dollars diverted to the crisis rather than being used on much-needed projects in the U.S.