ABSTRACT
The legacy of the fifties shaped early moves of the new Administration as the decisions to maintain a high-visibility SEATO, to back away from diplomatic recognition of Mongolia in the summer of 1961. Most important, to expand US military assistance to South Vietnam that winter on the basis of the much more tentative Eisenhower commitment. It should be added that the increased commitment to Vietnam was also fueled by a new breed of military strategists and academic social scientists who had developed theories of counter-guerrilla warfare and were eager to see them put to the test. The American government was sorely lacking in real Vietnam or Indochina expertise. Originally treated as an adjunct of Embassy Paris, our Saigon embassy and the Vietnam Desk at State were largely staffed from 1954 onward by French-speaking Foreign Service personnel of narrowly European experience.
