Why did the number of advisors increase from 17 to 685 by the end of 1961 in Vietnam?
This was a reflection of John F Kennedy’s policy of ‘containment without involvement’ or, more succinctly, wanting to have one’s cake and eat it. Kennedy felt that the Vietnamese must deal with their own Communist problem, but the basic problem was that the Vietnamese were incapable of doing so. The solution, as Kennedy saw it, was to teach them how to do it. This meant providing them with advisors to tell them what they needed to know and guide them through the learning process. As the Americans came to know the Vietnamese situation, it became increasingly apparent that the Vietnamese really had no idea at all how to deal with the Communists, so increasing numbers of advisors were sent to interact with all levels of the Vietnamese armed forces. The number of military advisors climbed from 17 to 685 in 1961, and to around 12,000 by the end of 1962. http://en.
