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OCR Page 1 of 262Chapter 10: Retrospective: A Road Deepened and Another Not Taken
a. One is bound
to pause with the death of
President Kennedy, and to reflect briefly on his policy concerning
Vietnam and Laos.
in the long Vietnam story, the
American decision of the fall of 1963
bulks large.
Its significance in terms of the US role in Vietnamese politics
has been deepened by time. Every time there has been dissatis-
faction with the performance of a South Vietnamese government,
there have been voices to recall that "we went once to that well,
and the water turned out brackish." There has been debate on
whether the 1963 actions were right or wrong, or perhaps better
stated, "Was this the least bad course the US could have followed,
in a choice of evils?" Second, and less discussed, what effect
did the US immersion in South Vietnamese politics have on the US
role and on the broad US sense of commitment, as felt both in
Washington and Saigon? And thirdly, though hardly discussed at
all at the time or to this day, was there an alternative and
wholly different road that might have been taken? Looking back,
the 1963 decisions come to rank almost alongside those of 1961,
barely below those of 1954-55 in institance and those of 1964-65
in both GRAVITY and importance.
Take first the more specific questions. .
b. Right or wrong? A respectable segment of American
at
what
opinion, including a few professionals and experienced newspaper
people who knew South Vietnam as well as any others, felt at the
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