-- Vietnam was a logical outcome of the Cold War. Obsessed with stopping communism, the U.S. involved itself in Vietnam believing it was an international conflict with the Soviets. In reality, Vietnam was a civil war and the U.S. was backing a regime with virtually no popular support.

1) Eisenhower and Diem

-- The End of French Rule

-- The United States Takes Over

-- Ngo Dihn Diem: Anti-Communist

-- Setbacks Elsewhere: Perceptions of Weakness

-- Nationalist Aspirations

2)Kennedy and Johnson Escalate the War

-- World Policeman

ð Technologists

ð Unrivaled Military Might

ð Invincible Benevolence

-- Policy influences

-- Strategy: Flexible Response

-- Failure of Diem

-- LBJ Goes to War

-- August 1964 -- Gulf of Tonkin Incident

3) Domestic Affiars

-- War on Poverty, the Great Society, and the 1964 Election: ð Foreign Policy Threat: Goldwater

ð Reform--War on Poverty and the Great Society

-- Head Start

-- Job Corps

-- Community Action Program

-- Medicare/Medicaid

-- Elementary and Secondary Education Act

-- Highway safety legislation.

-- Civil Rights

ð Threat to Great Society--Vietnam.

4) Escalation and the Tet Offensive

-- Bombing

-- Tet offensive

-- Forces for a reversal in policy

ð Political opposition at home

ð Heavy Cost of the War

ð No Clear Path to Victory

-- Failure of LBJ

-- America Pays the Price