Strategic Hamlet Essay

Melissa Ocava

Professor Andrade

English 101

1 October 2017

What Led To the Failures Of the Strategic Hamlet Program

In November 1961, Robert Thompson, suggested to Diem, a plan for pacification of the Delta. This plan was known as the strategic hamlet program. The Hamlet strategic hamlet program was essentially a plan to “combat the communist insurgency” by pacifying the countryside. However, the strategic hamlet program was a failure, isolating more rural Vietnamese rather than contributing to the growth in influence of the Viet Cong. When looking back on the strategic hamlet program, it’s inevitable but to wonder who and what assisted in its downfall. I believe that the JFK administration had some involvement in the failures of the strategic

hamlet program. The neglected insight on part of the JFK administration in which led to the fall of the Strategic Hamlet program was press management. How the war looked to others in speculation was a primary concern of Kennedy administration policy makers. In pursuit to make the public view war in a certain way they had hoped, this led to faults of the Strategic Hamlet program. As for the “who” may have contributed to the failures of the Strategic Hamlet program, I believe it is easy to assume that John Mecklin may have been a suspect.
The Kennedy administration policy makers tried their hardest to make America appear a certain way to the public, leading to what ultimately may have been the cause of the Strategic Hamlet program.

The American public were to be convinced that there was no danger of America entering and in the second, the south were in anyhow winning”(Young 92). In order to achieve this illusion to the public, Hanoi had to be publicly warned of America’s “unswerving commitment” to South Vietnam. It was important for the United States to avoid looking like a “new colonial power” to the South, while also getting them to support the government picked for them. Judging from this, we can get a sense of just how important the image of America was for the JFK administration. This obsession of how America was viewed to the public led to the “Name the Enemy Contest”, something that may have been a great reason as to why the strategic hamlet program met some

failures.
In the spring of 1962, in an effort to obtain the power of the word against NLF charges that Diem was an American puppet, John Mecklin announced a “Name the Enemy Contest”.

This was inspired by Robert Thompson, who was well known to American officials because of the strategic hamlet program. Mecklin offered a top prize of 3,5000 piastres for name that would essentially represent the enemy in a way to turn many against him. However, Mecklin’s contest was only one of many efforts to turn people against the enemy. For instance, “100,000 matchbooks were distributed with a message extolling the strategic hamlet program on the cover and kind words for the various government forces on the inside”(Young 93). This led to exposure of such issues that Mecklin had intended to be used to get the public to turn against the enemy. Often defending the image set for one’s own country, the outcome of such things result in failure. However, at the time, “The all important task was “enlist nationalistic sentiment on the minds of the South Vietnamese government, and to establish in the minds of the people the conviction that the Saigon regime is the legitimate government of the country”(Young 93). Now, the outcome of this was the ultimate reason for the failures of the strategic Hamlet

program.
The administration’s response to the bad press both the war and diem were getting was to “dispatch another fact finding mission”. In February 1963, Roger Hilsman and Michael Forrestal reported that “We are probably winning, but certainly more slowly than we had hoped”(Young 93). This just shows how the JFK administration tried to mask many events by making things seem a certain way. They often masked the truth with false hope and facts that would make the public feel more secure of their country. “Strategic hamlets continued to be a good idea, but it was difficult to know how villagers really felt about them, or how “how many of the 20,000 ‘Viet Kong’ killed last year were only innocent or at least persuadable villagers…”(Young 93). This just goes to show that while the strategic hamlet program was a new plan at the time, the JFK administration influenced the strategic hamlet program in some aspects. For example, seeing as how the text suggests that the strategic hamlet program was not fully sure of how the “strategic hamlets” felt about them, as well as how non-aware the hamlets were about issues, it leads us to believe that the JFK administration led the program to share certain ideals, which could have been a reason as to why the strategic hamlet program led to failures. Just as the JFK administration, the strategic hamlet program often covered up certain issues to make the issues appear not so drastic to the public.
Once Kennedy had passed away, the truth started to be revealed. After Kennedy’s death, many who were close and who supported Kennedy had said that the president considered withdrawing from Vietnam before the end of his term, but decided that in doing so, he “wouldn’t have a second”.