| Description |
xv, 421 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (p. [351]-398) and index. |
| Contents |
Whither Vietnam, if Kennedy had lived? -- Why Kennedy, Johnson, and Vietnam? Why now? -- Who's who at the Musgrove Conference -- What JFK decided: November 1961 -- What JFK decided: October-November 1963 -- What LBJ decided: the "Long 1964" -- Virtual JFK, not counterfactual JFK: Vietnam if Kennedy had lived -- Does it matter who is president in matters of war and peace? A tale of three choices. |
| Summary |
Tackling head-on the most controversial and debated what if in U.S. foreign policy, this provocative work explores what President John F. Kennedy would have done in Vietnam had he not been assassinated in 1963. Drawing on a wealth of recently declassified documents, frank oral testimony of White House officials from both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, and the analysis of top historians, this book presents compelling evidence that JFK was ready to end U.S. involvement well before the conflict escalated. With vivid immediacy, readers will feel they are in the president's war room as the debates raged that forever changed the course of American history and continue to affect us profoundly as the shadows of Vietnam stretch into Iraq. |
| Subject |
Vietnam War, 1961-1975 -- United States.
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Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963.
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Johnson, Lyndon B. (Lyndon Baines), 1908-1973.
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Presidents -- United States -- Decision making.
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Imaginary histories.
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| Added Author |
Lang, Janet M., 1948-
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Welch, David A.
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| ISBN |
9780742556997 (cloth : alk. paper) |
|
0742556999 (cloth : alk. paper) |
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