The Contents of Defining Documents in American History: The Vietnam War (1956–1975)

Publisher’s Note

Editor’s Introduction

Contributors

Kennedy’s War

Senator John F. Kennedy on America’s Stake in Vietnam

“The Path of Revolution in the South”

President Ngo Dinh Diem: Address to US Congress

Memo from Ambassador Durbrow to Diem

Notes on a National Security Council Meeting

Letter from JFK to Diem

Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield on US Policy in Southeast Asia

On the Prospect of a “Generals’ Coup”

Televised Interview with President Kennedy

Ambassador Lodge on the Worsening Situation

Johnson’s War

CIA Memo on National Liberation Front Methods

The Gulf of Tonkin Incident

A New Approach to Retaliation

LBJ: “Peace Without Conquest”

Meeting Between the President and His Advisors

“Why We Are In Vietnam”

A Recommendation for Troop Increases

General Westmoreland on Military Operations

“No Attractive Course of Action”

The Tet Offensive: A CIA Assessment

The President and His Advisors Review the Situation

Testimony Regarding the My Lai Massacre

President Johnson on Limiting the War

The Antiwar Movement

Call for A March on Washington

Protest Speech by Paul Potter

Message from Ho Chi Minh

Martin Luther King, Jr.: “Beyond Vietnam”

An Antidraft Call to Action

An Unwinnable War

“We Are Mired in Stalemate”

Weathermen Manifesto

George McGovern Urges an End to the War

Report of the President’s Commission on Campus Unrest, with Response from President Nixon

John Kerry’s Testimony Before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee

Nixon’s War

Conversation Between Presidents Nixon and Thiêu

Henry Kissinger to Nixon

Nixon on the “Silent Majority” and “Vietnamization”

Nixon on Operations in Cambodia

Taped Conversation between Nixon and Kissinger

President Nixon to President Thiêu

The Paris Peace Accords

Aftermath

Plea for Emergency Aid for Saigon

Pardon of Draft Evaders

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Appendixes

Chronological List

Web Resources

Bibliography