Reply #29: Thanks, erpowers. Kennedy ordered J.K. Galbraith to talk to North Vietnam.

[Octafish]

On the advice of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, President John F. Kennedy wanted to avoid a land war in Southeast Asia.

Ambassador to India John Kenneth Galbraith was authorized to do some back-channel work in order to avoid the bloodbath Kennedy, IMFO, knew was coming.

January 1963 - Secret negotiations between JFK and Soviet Union to end Vietnam

Papers reveal JFK efforts on Vietnam

By Bryan Bender
Boston Globe Staff
June 6, 2005

WASHINGTON -- Newly uncovered documents from both American and Polish archives show that President John F. Kennedy and the Soviet Union secretly sought ways to find a diplomatic settlement to the war in Vietnam, starting three years before the United States sent combat troops.

Kennedy, relying on his ambassador to India, John Kenneth Galbraith, planned to reach out to the North Vietnamese in April 1962 through a senior Indian diplomat, according to a secret State Department cable that was never dispatched.

SNIP…

A draft cable dated the same day instructed Galbraith to use Desai as a channel discreetly communicating to responsible leaders North Vietnamese regime . . . the president's position as he indicated it."

But a week later, Harriman met with Kennedy and apparently persuaded him to delay, according to other documents, and the overture was never revived.

SNIP…

At the urging of Nehru, Galbraith met with the Polish foreign minister, Adam Rapacki, in New Delhi on Jan. 21, 1963, where Galbraith expressed Kennedy's likely interest in a Polish proposal for a cease-fire and new elections in South Vietnam. There is no evidence of further discussions between the two diplomats. Rapacki returned to Warsaw a day later. Galbraith wrote in his memoirs that it was not followed up.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/06/06/papers_reveal_jfk_efforts_on_vietnam/?page=full

The actions of JFK's next two successors demonstrate they disregarded MacArthur's advice. Ford ordered everybody to sign the damn accords and got the hell out.