The Turning Point

"Kennedy was not receptive. Long before becoming president, he had spoken out in Congress against the disastrous French experience in Vietnam, citing it as a reason the U.S. should never fight a ground war there. In the summer of 1961, he said he had accepted the conclusion of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who counseled against a land war in Asia, insisting that even a million American infantry soldiers would not be sufficient to prevail. He would offer military aid and training to Saigon, but he would not authorize the dispatch of ground forces."

Gordon M. Goldstein in the Los Angeles Times contends that John F. Kennedy's death, forty-five years ago today, altered the course of the Vietnam War.

Also, Emma McIntyre compiles articles from The Atlantic on the Kennedys going back to 1954.