The Vietnam lobby: the American Friends of Vietnam, 1955-1975

525 Pages·1997·1.25 MB·English

by  Joseph G. Morgan

The Vietnam Lobby : The American Friends
title:
of Vietnam, 1955-1975
author: Morgan, Joseph G.
publisher: University of North Carolina Press
isbn10 | asin: 0807823228
print isbn13: 9780807823224
ebook isbn13: 9780807863503
language: English
American Friends of Vietnam--History,
United States--Foreign relations--Vietnam,
Vietnam--Foreign relations--United States,
subject
Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975--
Diplomatic history, Lobbying--United
States.
publication date: 1997
lcc: E183.8.V5M58 1997eb
ddc: 327.730597
American Friends of Vietnam--History,
United States--Foreign relations--Vietnam,
Vietnam--Foreign relations--United States,
subject:
Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975--
Diplomatic history, Lobbying--United
States.
Page iii
The Vietnam Lobby
The American Friends of Vietnam, 19551975
Joseph G. Morgan
Page iv
© 1997 The University of North Carolina Press
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and
durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book
Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Morgan, Joseph G. The Vietnam lobby : the
American Friends of Vietnam, 19551975 / by
Joseph G. Morgan.
p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and
index. ISBN 0-8078-2322-8 (alk. paper)
1. American Friends of VietnamHistory.
2. United StatesForeign relationsVietnam.
3. VietnamForeign relationsUnited States.
4. Vietnamese Conflict, 19611975Diplomatic
history. 5. LobbyingUnited States. I. Title.
E183.8.V5M58 1997 96-32708
327.730597dc20 CIP
01 00 99 98 97 5 4 3 2 1
Page v
To James and Joan Morgan
Page vii
Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xv
Abbreviations xvii
1 1
Ngo Dinh Diem's Early American Supporters, 19501954
2 15
The Founding of the AFV, 19541955
3 31
The Early Activities of the AFV, 19551956
4 46
Promoting the Diem Regime, 19561959
5 62
Losing Faith in Diem, 19591961
6 77
AFV Policy Disputes and American Escalation, 19611962
7 91
The AFV and the Fall of Diem, 1963
8 104
The AFV and the Escalation of the War in Vietnam,
19641965
9 122
The AFV and the American War in Vietnam, 19661968
10 137
The Last Years of the AFV, 19691975
11 153
Conclusion
Appendix: Officers of the AFY 161
Notes 165
Bibliography 209
Index 221
Page ix
Preface
When the United States tried to shape Vietnam's destiny in the mid-
twentieth century, millions of American citizens became participants
in this massive, and ultimately fruitless, effort. Elected and appointed
officials formulated and implemented plans designed to prevent a
communist victory in Vietnam. Thousands of soldiers, pilots, and
marines risked, and often lost, their lives on Vietnam's battlefields in
order to ensure the success of this policy. Journalists assigned to
Vietnam and their editors in America reported and assessed the
effectiveness of their government's course of action. The conflict in
Vietnam also became a focus of concern for tens of thousands of
private citizens who heatedly debated the wisdom of their nation's
involvement. They debated on speaking platforms, in street
demonstrations, in the pages of the press, and on radio and television
networks. As American casualties steadily rose in an apparently
endless struggle, a growing number of people concluded that
America's intervention in Vietnam's affairs had been a mistaken, or
even immoral, enterprise, and they called for a rapid end to their
country's role in the fighting. Other Americans, however, argued that
the United States had the right, and even the duty, to oppose
communism in Vietnam and to aid the Vietnamese who sought
America's assistance.
Some of the strongest supporters of the war effort belonged to the
American Friends of Vietnam (AFV), one of the earliest, and perhaps
the first, of the private associations concerned with Vietnam. Founded
in 1955, the AFV could trace its roots to 1950, when some of the
individuals who became its first members met Ngo Dinh Diem, a
Vietnamese nationalist who claimed that his country needed America's
help not only in freeing itself from French colonial rule, but in
preventing a communist-led independence movement from winning
power. Impressed by Diem's fervent patriotism and convinced that he
was the best candidate for defeating the forces of colonialism and
communism in Vietnam, these Americans became Diem's partisans
and promoted his cause by introducing him to prominent figures such
as Francis Cardinal Spellman, Justice William O. Douglas, and
Senators Mike Mansfield and John F. Kennedy. When Diem became
the Vietnamese premier in
Page x
1954, they tried to convince the government, the press, and the public
that he deserved solid American backing. They decided to organize
their work on a more formal basis by establishing the AFV at the end
of 1955.
The AFV's early membership reflected the broad spectrum of
Americans who believed that the United States had an obligation to
help Diem in his struggle against the French and the communists.
Well-known figures such as Kennedy, Douglas, Mansfield, General
William J. Donovan, and Norman Thomas, the American socialist
leader, joined the AFV, but the group's most influential members were
on its executive committee. These officers included the economist Leo
Cherne, political activists such as Joseph Buttinger and Christopher
Emmet, General John W. O'Daniel, academics such as Wesley Fishel
and William Henderson, and Harold Oram and Gilbert Jonas, two
public relations executives who worked for the Diem regime. Many of
these people had been Diem's earliest admirers and would support him
for years. Nevertheless, when it became evident that Diem's idea of
national independence amounted to little more than establishing a
dictatorship to benefit his own family, most of them turned against the
Vietnamese leader andcalled for his ouster. Few of them, however,
doubted that an anticommunist state in South Vietnam could be
established; after Diem was overthrown in 1963, they supported
repeated American efforts to help his successors in the 1960s and
1970s.
As the conflict in Vietnam and the controversy that surrounded it
intensified in the 1960s, the AFV became a target for Americans who
opposed the war. These critics called the AFV and its membership
"the Vietnam Lobby" and they charged that the individuals who had
formed the group had "maneuvered the Eisenhower administration
and the American press into supporting the rootless, unpopular, and
hopeless regime of a despot.