The Kennedy Administration
The Vietnam conflict spanned 20 years (1955-1975) and five presidential administrations--Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Gerald Ford. During the early years of the conflict, Mike Mansfield expressed his concerns about the situation in Vietnam and Southeast Asia to the president in person or through confidential memos. He was initially supportive of President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam.
By 1962, Mansfield was publicly voicing his opposition to the war. President Kennedy sent him on a fact-finding tour of Vietnam. On December 2, 1962, after Mansfield returned, he asserted that the U.S. should avoid further involvement in the conflict. He also reported that President Diem was mis-managing the $2 billion of U.S. aid. The Kennedy administration continued to pour money, troops, and other resources into Vietnam.
Senator Mike Mansfield and the 35th President of the United States John F. Kennedy, 1961. Mss 065, Photo Number: 98.1190
In an interview Mansfield reflected on that trip: "Kennedy sent me on a mission in 1962. It had been about my fifth or sixth trip to Southeast Asia. I was very friendly with Ngo Dinh Diem…I met with him again, had a chance to look the situation over, to his brother, Nhu, a sort of mysterious individual, hard to define, and met with the president, Diem. I was shocked. He wasn't the same man I knew before …I came to the conclusion that he had become a kind of a puppet, and that Nhu, his brother, was the mastermind." (Interview with Mike Mansfield, 1989, OH 458-001)