President John F. Kennedy Approves Secret Military Action Against North Vietnam
May 11, 1961
President Kennedy approves National Security Action Memorandum (NSAM) 52. In the memo, Kennedy approves a program of “military, political, economic, psychological” actions of a “covert character” aimed at preventing Communist domination of South Vietnam. Among other stipulations, the memo also states the Kennedy administration’s objectives to increase popular support for South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem and to use economic and other means to improve the Diem government’s stability and democratic character.1