The Irony of Vietnam The System Worked

Introduction

PART ONE: Decisions: Getting into Vietnam

1. Patterns, Dilemmas, and Explanations

2. Recurrent Patterns and Dilemmas from Roosevelt to Eisenhower

3. Picking up the Torch: The Kennedy Administration

4. Intervention in Force: The Johnson Administration, I

5. Coming HOme to Roost: The Johnson Administration, II

PART TWO: Goals: The Imperative Not to Lose

6. National Security Goals and Stakes

7. Domestic Political Stakes

8. The Bureaucracy and the Innner Circle

PART THREE: Means: The Minimum Necessary and the Maximum Feasible

9. Constraints

10. Pressures and the President

PART FOUR: Perceptions: Realism, Hope, and Compromise

11. Optimism, Pessimism, and Credibility

12. The Strategy of Perseverance

PART FIVE: Conclusions

13. The Lessons of Vietnam

Documentary Appendix

Bibliographical Note

Index

Table