-- Lesson: No Dominoes

NEW LEADER/SAME ADVISORS

 -- Domestics Constraints

-- Gulf of Tonkin

-- Congressional Support/Credibility Gap

-- Pleiku

-- Perceptions of Weakness/ Munich Parallels
 

IMPACT OF THE ESCALATION

 -- Matching Escalation

-- Failure of Bombing

-- Search and Destroy--Civilians

-- Environmental Destruction--Agent Orange

-- Continued Political Weakness in the South

THE DOMESTIC SITUATION

-- Increased Campus Protests

-- Loss of Democratic Left

-- Press Coverage

-- Congressional Opposition

-- Economic Costs

-- Pressure for Negotiation

THE TURNING POINT: TET

-- Urbanizing the Conflict

-- Khe Sahn

-- Ben Tre and Hue

-- Military Victory/Political Defeat

-- Reassessment of Commitment

NIXON AND DƒTENTE

-- New Assumptions

-- Russian Diplomacy

-- Linkage

-- China Card

-- Use Regional Allies

-- Strategic Retreat/Tactical Escalation--The New Brinkmanship

-- Centralized Foreign Policy

IMPLICATIONS FOR VIETNAM

-- Soviet/China Pressure on NVN

-- Bombing

-- Madman

-- Vietnamization

-- Widen War--Cambodia

-- Continued Negotiation and Bombing

-- Final Agreement/Final Bombing

-- Impact of Bombing

-- Post-Settlement Collapse

WHY DID WE FAIL?

-- Failure of Political Will?

-- Failure of Military Strategy?

-- Underestimation of Enemy?

-- Opposition--Activists/Media/Politicians?

-- Culture Gap?

-- History of Vietnam?