Introduction

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents v
3. Acknowledgments vii
4. Introduction 1
5. PART I. THE POLITICAL CONTEXT
6. Vietnam. An Episode in the Cold War 11
7. A Way of Thinking. The Kennedy Administration s Initial Assumptions about Vietnam and Their Consequences 24
8. From the Colorado to the Mekong 37
9. Hanoi's Response to American Policy, 1961-1965. Crossed Signals? 58
10. PART II. THE MILITARY CONTEXT
11. The Zen of Escalation. Containment and Commitment in Southeast Asia 85
12. Conspiracy of Silence: LBJ, the Joint Chiefs, and Escalation of the War in Vietnam 100
13. PART III. KENNEDY AND JOHNSON
14. Lyndon Johnson and the Legacy of Vietnam 119
15. The Kennedy-Johnson Transition. The Case for Policy Reversal 158
16. NSAM 263 and NSAM 273. Manipulating History 177
17. PART IV. THE SOVIET DIMENSION
18. Turnabout? The Soviet Policy Dilemma in the Vietnamese Conflict 207
19. Contributors 220
20. Index 223