Leading to Vietnam

By Eck99

  • January 1961

    January 1961
    Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev pledges support for "wars of national liberation" throughout the world.

  • January 20, 1961

    January 20, 1961
    John Fitzgerald Kennedy is inaugurated as the 35th U.S. President and declares "...we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to insure the survival and the success of liberty."

  • May 1961

    May 1961
    Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson visits President Diem in South Vietnam and hails the embattled leader as the 'Winston Churchill of Asia.'

  • January 11, 1962

    January 11, 1962
    During his State of the Union address, President Kennedy states, "Few generations in all of history have been granted the role of being the great defender of freedom in its maximum hour of danger. This is our good fortune..."

  • January 15, 1962

    January 15, 1962
    During a press conference, President Kennedy is asked if any Americans in Vietnam are engaged in the fighting. "No," the President responds without further comment.