This article is terribly misleading – we know from hindsight that the United States devoted hundreds of thousands of American military personnel to the South Vietnamese cause just a year and a half later, any optimistic verbiage in this column about progress cannot be entirely true.
It is illustrated with a picture of Secretary of Defense McNamara and General Maxwell Taylor reporting to President Kennedy on all that they witnessed during their fact-finding trip a month earlier. Despite what is stated in this news report, the two functionaries are recommending additional troop deployments with extended tours of duty. They are also suggesting that South Vietnam President Ngo Dinh Diem be removed from power.
The document pictured below sums up the presidential briefing depicted on the right.
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