Kennedy and Vietnam

SIR – Tim Stanley writes that, had President Kennedy lived, “Vietnam would still have happened” (Comment, October 28).

I must take issue with this assertion. On October 11 1963, President Kennedy signed National Security Action Memorandum (NSAM) 263, which committed America to withdrawing 1,000 military advisers by the end of 1963. It was his intention to pull out all American advisers by the end of 1965. President Kennedy had no illusions about the difficulty of waging war in Vietnam, and no intention that America should take part in such a conflict.

On November 26 1963, just four days after Kennedy’s death, President Johnson signed a new NSAM, No 273, which substantially rolled back the premise of NSAM 263. By August 1964, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution had been passed, and America was set for war in Vietnam. John Kallinicos

Sale, Cheshire