Title: The irony of Vietnam :
Authors: Gelb, Leslie H.; Betts, Richard K.,; Betts, Richard K.,
Date: 1979
Publisher: Brookings Institution,
Physical description: xi, 387 pages ; 24 cm
Language: English
LC classification: E
Contents: Part 1. Decisions : getting into Vietnam. Patterns, dilemmas, and explanations -- Recurrent patterns and dilemmas from Roosevelt to Eisenhower -- Picking up the torch : the Kennedy administration -- Intervention in force : the Johnson administration, I -- Coming home to roost : the Johnson Administration, II -- pt. 2. Goals : the imperative not to lose. National security goals and stakes -- Domestic political stakes -- The bureaucracy and the inner circle -- pt. 3. Means : the minimum necessary and the maximum feasible. Constraints -- Pressures and the president -- pt. 4. Perceptions : realism, hope, and compromise. Optimism, pessimism, and credibility -- The strategy of perseverance -- pt. 5. Conclusions -- Documentary appendix.
Subject headings (LCSH): United States--Foreign relations--Vietnam.; Vietnam War, 1961-1975.; Vietnam--Foreign relations--United States.