JFK Assassination as obvious CIA plot and implications

Two questions.

One. Can you provide information on the NSD?
Two. By having "full knowledge" of Diem not hanging on to power, are you saying that he was in support of the coup that ultimately removed Diem? I ask this because from what I have read he certainly knew about it, but he was very non-committal with his remarks about the matter. It seems he almost wanted to stay out of the decision making process and leave it up to Lodge, who he knew wanted a regime change.

 

1. National Security Action Memorandum 263 - Wikipedia

2. There's a tape that was released from August 1963 where Lodge tells JFK that Diem and his family will be killed and JFK sort of accepts that notion and doesn't dispute it. However, I would say JFK wasn't in favor of it, as there is a WH tape from November 4th, 1963 released where Kennedy memorializes the coup and says he was shocked by it. Nevertheless, I'd say he almost certainly knew it was a legitimate possible outcome, which actually adds weight to his October 1963 NSD in that he knew Diem's standing was shaky at best, yet he still wanted to withdraw forces. I think JFK wanted to keep South Vietnam out of the hands of the Communists, which I would hope any POTUS would have wanted at that time. I do not believe he wanted direct American involvement in the war though. There's simply nothing that suggests he wanted to escalate American involvement. Contrast that with less than a year later, Johnson is running covert bombing raids over North Vietnam and lies to the American public about the Gulf of Tonkin incident. Even sending the two destroyers back into North Vietnamese waters after the first North Vietnamese attack, knowing there was a good chance North Vietnam would strike the destroyers again and obviously, that put American servicemen in peril for the sole purpose of trying to provoke the North Vietnamese.

 

Good reply and thanks. I do, however, have to somewhat disagree. Although NSAM 263 was approved by Kennedy, it is still hard to believe that complete withdrawal was a true option, considering the number of instances where Kennedy openly spoke of supporting Vietnam, along with his continued concern over the potential fall of other SE Asian countries, namely Laos, Cambodia and Thailand. He certainly did so behind closed doors from the moment he became President, but outwardly made similar comments to his brother, members of his staff and the press. Most notably in his interview with Walter Conkrite on 9/2/63, he specifically stated, "I don't agree with those who say we should withdraw. That would be a great mistake". From the moment he took office he escalated the number of advisers, money and military hardware being sent to Vietnam. Although his "Flexible Response" strategy initially would have involved no US "combat" troops, it certainly made use of special ops personnel. That likely would have never changed, especially with the ongoing conflict of information coming out of Vietnam regarding the success or failure of the war strategy at that time. I will say it is possible that he may not have been in favor of escalating the number of US personnel in Vietnam, but I also believe that regardless of NSAM 263, Kennedy would have never completely withdraw from Vietnam. It was, at the time, viewed as simply too important to lose.

 

We went from having 16,000 advisors in Vietnam when Kennedy signed NSD 263, JFK is then assassinated, and by 1965 we have 185,000 US troops over there. Hard to believe if Kennedy wanted more control of the situation he would not have escalated it further when he had the chance. We were never going to escalate to that level without a very good reason (ie direct attack by North Vietnam) which is what Johnson was pushing for. Johnson still had to lie about it just to get us to that point. I don’t see any indication of Kennedy doing anything of that nature.

When you have time, this is a great doc…