redcoat | 05 Oct 2015 3:59 a.m. PST |
Hi all, Anyone know where I can easily locate public approval ratings for Kennedy's handling of Vietnam (or similar public polls) in *1963*, the summer of the Buddhist Crisis? Many thanks indeed in advance for any assistance! |
15mm and 28mm Fanatik | 05 Oct 2015 7:47 a.m. PST |
You can find it here: link |
Col Durnford | 05 Oct 2015 9:41 a.m. PST |
Some very interesting number. |
vtsaogames | 05 Oct 2015 11:29 a.m. PST |
Vietnam was not in the news as much as later, when US troops got into ground combat. In 1963 they were advisors. |
raylev3 | 05 Oct 2015 1:06 p.m. PST |
Great link from Fanatik…the sentence that applies to the question is: He had a 74% rating after the Cuban Missile Crisis, then, "His ratings begin to drop thereafter, falling to below 60% in Gallup polls spanning September through November 1963, including his final approval rating of 58%. Whether this downward trajectory would have continued had he not been assassinated is a point of speculation, but the trends suggest this might have been the case." |
Mako11 | 05 Oct 2015 4:30 p.m. PST |
I suspect regardless of who was in charge, the polls would have been about the same. No doubt, it would have rubbed a lot of luster off the Kennedy Presidency though. |
redcoat | 06 Oct 2015 11:54 a.m. PST |
Gosh, that's very interesting! I wonder, is there any easily accessible polling evidence that relates *specifically* to how the Buddhist Crisis of summer '63 affected American popular support for continued US involvement in South Vietnam? |
redcoat | 06 Oct 2015 11:59 a.m. PST |
For example, in the light of Diem and Nhu's shenanigans, could Kennedy have convinced the American people of the need to pull the US entirely out of South Vietnam in 1963, without fear of a Republican backlash? If so, why didn't he? |
raylev3 | 06 Oct 2015 12:18 p.m. PST |
Why would Kennedy have pulled out? He was the one who put 16,000 advisors there; when he became president there were only 900. Eisenhower warned Kennedy against too deep an involvement in VN, and it was a low priority for him…. Most people who view Kennedy through the myth of Camelot don't realized Vietnam was Kennedy's war to start with. |
redcoat | 06 Oct 2015 11:05 p.m. PST |
Because he probably knew it was a lost cause. Nothing he was doing was stemming SV's collapse: link |
raylev3 | 07 Oct 2015 3:08 p.m. PST |
Very interesting article, but it's a third hand source quoting a bunch of second hand sources….it comes across as a 20-20 hindsight revisionist attempt to blame Johnson (who certainly was the biggest factor) and protect Kennedy's image. |