Clifford Case: The Unknown Maverick of the Vietnam War

Abstract

Forty years after its conclusion, the war in Vietnam remains fresh in the memory of many Americans. Tens of thousands of young men never returned home; many more returned wounded, disabled, or with permanent psychological damage. The war caused some politicians to completely alter their views of foreign policy, becoming either anti-war, or pro-war. These changes continue to reverberate today. Political scientists, historians, politicians, and people who directly witnessed or were somehow affected by the events of this war, have tried to make sense of what happened fifty years ago abroad, at home, in politics, and in the minds of people. Countless books have been written about presidents, generals, and members of administrations; however, there has been surprisingly little written about a very important member of the United States Senate, the distinguished Senator from New Jersey, Clifford P. Case II. Case also took an early leading role in the debate over Vietnam War. Yet, the point is not merely that Case was an important participant in the debate over the Vietnam War, but also that his positions regarding the war were complex and have not been well understood. In scholarly literature on the American political history of the Vietnam era, there is very little discussion of Case, and what does exist is inadequate to fully grasp the complexities of Case's positions on the issue of U.S. intervention in Vietnam. Based primarily on examining a substantial amount of Case's documents from the 1950s into the early 1970s, this paper will shed light on and develop a more complex, sophisticated and nuanced understanding of Clifford Case's positions at different moments in the debate over U.S. intervention in Vietnam. A supporter of the war at first, Case took an increasingly somber view of American involvement in Vietnam as the war progressed.