Vietnam : The Early Decisions / edited by Lloyd C. Gardner and Ted Gittinger.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Gardner, Lloyd C., 1934- editor.

Gittinger, Ted, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Vietnam War, 1961-1975--United States.

Vietnam War, 1961-1975.

Vietnam--Foreign relations--United States.

Vietnam.

United States--Foreign relations--Vietnam.

United States.

United States--Foreign relations--1961-1963.

United States--Foreign relations--1963-1969.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (239 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Austin : University of Texas Press, [1997]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Haunting questions remain about our involvement in Vietnam. Perhaps the most persistent of these is whether President Kennedy would have ended American involvement in Vietnam if he had lived. For many Americans, Oliver Stone's film JFK left no doubt that before his assassination Kennedy had determined to quit Vietnam. Yet the historical record offers a more complex answer. In this fresh look at the archival evidence, noted scholars take up the challenge to provide us with their conclusions about the early decisions that put the United States on the path to the greatest American tragedy since the Civil War. The tensions and turmoil that accompanied those decisions reveal the American presidency at the center of a storm of conflicting advice. The book is divided into four sections. Parts one and two delve into the political and military contexts of the early decisions. Part three raises the intriguing questions of Kennedy's and Johnson's roles in the conflict, particularly the thorny issue of whether Kennedy did, in fact, intend to withdraw from Vietnam and whether Johnson reversed that policy. Part four reveals an uncanny parallel between early Soviet policy toward Hanoi and U.S. policy toward Saigon.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

PART I. THE POLITICAL CONTEXT

Vietnam. An Episode in the Cold War

A Way of Thinking. The Kennedy Administration s Initial Assumptions about Vietnam and Their Consequences

From the Colorado to the Mekong

Hanoi's Response to American Policy, 1961-1965. Crossed Signals?

PART II. THE MILITARY CONTEXT

The Zen of Escalation. Containment and Commitment in Southeast Asia

Conspiracy of Silence: LBJ, the Joint Chiefs, and Escalation of the War in Vietnam

PART III. KENNEDY AND JOHNSON

Lyndon Johnson and the Legacy of Vietnam

The Kennedy-Johnson Transition. The Case for Policy Reversal

NSAM 263 and NSAM 273. Manipulating History

PART IV. THE SOVIET DIMENSION

Turnabout? The Soviet Policy Dilemma in the Vietnamese Conflict

Contributors

Index

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes index.

ISBN:

9780292799400

0292799403

OCLC:

1393307105