President John F. Kennedy sent this letter of sympathy to Mrs. Bobbie Lou Pendergrass. He was responding to a letter she sent following the death of her brother, James McAndrew, who was killed in a helicopter crash in South Vietnam. He addresses her question about why the United States isn’t sending more troops by pointing out that servicemen, like her brother, are in Vietnam as advisors, not combatants.
The President wrote “Americans are in Viet Nam because we have determined that this country must not fall under Communist domination,” and that it is “apparent that the Communist attempt to take over Viet Nam, is only part of a larger plan for bringing the entire area of Southeast Asia under their domination.” He says that “the threat to the Viet Names people is, in the long run, a threat to the Free World community, and ultimately a threat to us also.”
At the time of the letter, Kennedy wrote, 45 American soldiers had given their lives in Viet Nam.
