Booklist: JFK and Vietnam, by John M. Newman

JFK and Vietnam: Deception, Intrigue, and the Struggle for Power, by John M. Newman
Warner Books, 1992
460 pages, notes included after each chapter, acronyms, list of persons, glossary, chronology, bibliography, index
Library: 959.704 NEW

Description
Did John F. Kennedy oppose-or promote-American intervention in Vietnam? What course did he pursue and why did he hide it from the public? What really happened on the battlefield and why did senior officials hide the facts from him? Why did those facts end up in the vice president's office instead of Kennedy's? What policy did Lyndon Johnson inherit from the fallen president and why has this crucial issue remained shrouded in mystery and controversy for nearly 30 years?

In what may well be the most shocking and historically important work on the Vietnam War ever written, JFK and Vietnam answers those questions and lifts the veil surrounding the struggle over intervention in the pivotal Kennedy years.

It documents the persistence with which the Joint Chiefs of Staff and senior civilian officials advocated that the President send American combat troops into Vietnam in the wake of the Bay of Pigs fiasco and the collapse of his policy in Laos.

It unravels the intrigues and webs of deception that followed Kennedy's refusal to order troops to the region and his decision to ship advisors instead. It lays bare the stark failure of Kennedy's Vietnam program and unearths the vital intelligence that was kept from him. It leads the reader from the trails in Laos and the battlefields in Vietnam to the maze of official Washington and the offices where both the truth and the lies finally emerged.

It reveals an isolated president locked in a struggle with the advisors he appointed and the bureaucracy he had fashioned. And it brings to light the tragic climax of this struggle: while his advisors were planning to escalate, Kennedy was planning to withdraw when the shots rang out in Dallas.

Based on 15,000 pages of documents, many newly declassified, and recent exclusive interviews with key participants, John M. Newman details, as no other historian has, this dramatic and incredible sequence of events.

Groundbreaking in its revelations and certain to provoke debate for years to come, JFK and Vietnam shows us, at last, the personailties, power struggles, and intrigues that led America into its most self-destructive war.

A gripping account of a missing link in America's past, it is also an ominous warning for America's future.

Table of Contents
Foreword by John BArdi
Part I: Loss of Innocence
Prologue: Hook, line and sinker
1. Straight to the brink over Laos
2. Landsdale: Lone wolf and operator
3. The Struggle over US troops erupts
Part II: Taking Charge
4. LBJ in Saigon
5. JFK in Washington
6. Consensus builds for intervention
7. Taylor too
8. McNamara takes charge
Part III: The Deceivers and the deceived
9. The Creation of MACV
10. "The Intelligence problem must be solved"
11. "We all remain silent"
12. Webs of deception
13. Secrets in Saigon
Part IV: Darkness at the end of the Tunnel
14. The Price of Laos
15. Failure in Vietnam
16. All HEll breaks loose
17. Brothers and Buddhists
Part V: The TRagic crossroads
18. "Cops and Robbers"
19. A City of Two Tales
20. Fork in the Road
21. "We have a policy"
22. The Honolulu Agenda
23. The Drums After Dallas
Conclusion: the war and the struggle for power
Acronyms
List of persons
Glossary
Chronology
Bibliography
Index