American tragedy

"American Tragedy is the first book to draw on complete official documentation to tell the full story of how we became involved in Vietnam - and the story it tells challenges widely held assumptions about the roles of Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson. Using an enormous range of source materials from these administrations, Kaiser shows how the policies that led to the war were developed during Eisenhower's tenure and nearly implemented in the closing days of his administration in response to a crisis in Laos: how Kennedy immediately reversed course on Laos and refused for three years to follow…