777 fixer
Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2004
- Messages
- 4,792
- Reaction score
- 900
"The Kennedy administration remained essentially committed to the Cold War foreign policy inherited from the Truman and Eisenhower administrations. In 1961, the U.S. had 50,000 troops based in Korea, and Kennedy faced a three-part crisis – the failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the construction of the Berlin Wall, and a negotiated settlement between the pro-Western government of Laos and the Pathet Lao communist movement.[153] These crises made Kennedy believe that another failure on the part of the United States to gain control and stop communist expansion would fatally damage U.S. credibility with its allies and his own reputation.
Kennedy was thus determined to "draw a line in the sand" and prevent a communist victory in Vietnam. He told James Reston of The New York Times immediately after his Vienna meeting with Khrushchev, "Now we have a problem making our power credible and Vietnam looks like the place."[154][155]"
Yes, that reference is from Wiki
It is easier to cite/quote than books, but that can be done
Note JFK's "..Viet Nam looks like the place" quote at the end.
It was LBJ's war. He's the one who escalated, not Kennedy.