By the Lyndon Johnson Administration, most definitely.
The Texas cowboy diplomacy embraced by LBJ was tragically oblivious to what Minh was about, why his people rallied to him, and often died for his cause.
In summary, French colonialism had brutally oppressed the generally impoverished locals in SE Asia for decades. Finally in the late 50’s and early 60’s, the white westerners were in retreat and being driven out, with help from the Chinese, who saw an opening to chase a hated occupier from its back yard. JFK pledged the US military to aid ally France, basically taking the reins from the beaten and embarrassed French, under the misbegotten ideal that Chinese commie aggression, not Vietnamese self-determination was at hand.
After JFK was killed, LBJ gained the Presidency and spent 5 years learning absolutely nothing in his bumbling travails in Vietnam. Tens of thousands of brave Americans died ugly in faraway jungle for a false ethos, not to mention uncountable Vietnamese, largely because LBJ only heard what he wanted to hear.
