American Catholic activism and its impact on the Vietnam War, 1950--1963

American involvement in the escalation of the Vietnam War has been extensively studied. One aspect of the conflict has been largely ignored by historians---the impact of Catholicism. This study will explore the extent of the Catholic impact in the period 1950-1963. Catholic activism was significant in the making and unmaking of United States intervention in Vietnam. In the early 1950s, influential Catholic conservatives were intent on putting an end to the ever-expanding threat of communism. This anticommunist activism caused influential Catholics to apply pressure to the Eisenhower administration to intervene in Vietnam. This pressure was compounded by anticommunist fears the administration held. As a result, the Eisenhower administration chose to endorse Ngo Dinh Diem as premier in the Government of South Vietnam, believing the Catholic would hold his ground against the communist forces. Diem's repressive, corrupt regime and the escalating American commitment in Vietnam meant that by 1958, American lay Catholic attitudes toward war had begun to change radically. By the late 1950s and early 1960s, a shift was occurring that turned a number of Catholics away from anticommunist activism to antiwar activism. This turn to antiwar activism would continue to build until Catholics became instrumental in protests against US involvement in Vietnam in the 1960s. The American Catholic hierarchy, however, clung to its anticommunism throughout the 1960s. Although this shift to antiwar activism for a substantial number of Catholics was affected by the election of Pope John XXIII in 1958, the escalating Vietnam conflict, the continued role of the United States in Vietnam, and Diem's repressive, corrupt regime contributed to the acceptance and growing success of Catholic antiwar counterculture.