El Pibe Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > He was pretty instrumental in escalating the > conflict, so seems a dubious conclusion to come > to. > > I've a very interesting diplomatic and policy > history of the war, much of it based upon > transcripts of declassified conversations, many of > them in the oval office itself. > > Basically it boiled down to 3 presidents in a row > thinking the war was a very bad idea but each one > thinking it had to pursue it in the first term in > order to extricate themselves in the second term; > political posturing for domestic consumption. > > President 1 died, 2 retired and 3 did what he > said. > All told that involved keeping a war going for > votes 10 years longer than necessary. > > We'll never know if Kennedy would have managed to > extricate the US from the conflict, but given that > withdrawal would have resulted in the overthrow of > a client government by a communist insurgency, I > can't see how he'd have done it any differently to > Johnson. > > Nixon certainly didn't achieve peace with honour > and was probably responsible for the most killing > by indiscriminate bombing, but he did finally say, > ok we'll lose the war on my watch!! > > A very interesting read if anyone wants borrowage > (once I have it back from lendage) Dude is was an early 90s made for TV movie. Don't overthink it man!