General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: LBJ Was Horrible. Nixon Was Worse. [View all]SoDesuKa
(3,173 posts)If you get TDY pay it certainly does appear in your military records, espeicially if you're performing hazardous duty. There seems to be a reluctance to believe that LBJ started the Vietnam War pretty much by himself, along with crooks like Robert McNamara in his administration.
Eisenhower warned against a land war in asia, a fact that makes it unlikely that he had anything to do with sending combat troops as such to Vietnam. Kennedy may have OK'd some limited combat operations on the part of advisors he sent to Vietham, but he certainly didn't green light a war. That didn't happen until LBJ, who carefully prepared the American public for an all-out war which he was sure we would win.
I don't believe either Eisenhower or Kennedy approved a covert war as such. That would be too difficult to contain if anything went wrong, as Kennedy learned with the Bay of Pigs invasion.