as a member of the american friends of vietnam, senator john F. Kennedy became a great admirer of Ngo Dinh Diem, seeing him as just the type of independent nationalist needed to carry out the struggle in Vietnam. Delivering the keynote address at the organization's 1956 conference, Kennedy lauded “the amazing success of President Diem in meeting firmly and with determination the major political and economic crises which had heretofore continually plagued Vietnam.” South Vietnam was an experiment aimed at finding an alternative to Communism in Asia, Kennedy said, and the United States “cannot afford to permit that experiment to fail.” Vietnam “represents the cornerstone of the Free World in Southeast Asia, the keystone to the arch, the finger in the dike.” Kennedy's views on Diem would change somewhat over time, but he would never lose his respect for Diem or his conviction that the United States had to preserve South Vietnam.

During the Eisenhower years, John F. Kennedy derided the administration's strategy of “Massive Retaliation,” believing that it left the United States ill-prepared to fight or support wars of lower intensity, especially wars against Communists in the developing nations of Latin America, Asia, and Africa. It was foolhardy to risk nuclear war over such conflicts, Kennedy argued, and it was pusillanimous to avoid getting involved and letting the Communists prevail.