JFK and Vietnam; Deception, Intrigue, and the Struggle for Power

New York: Warner Books, 1992. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Good/Very good. 24 cm. xiv, [4], 506, [4] pages. Illustrations. Maps. Acronyms. List of Persons. Glossary. Chronology. Bibliography. Index, DJ has slight wear and soiling. Paperclip tear at top of page 293/4. Foreword by John Bardi. John M. Newman is an American author and retired major in the United States Army. Newman served in the Armed Forces in Thailand, the Philippines, Japan, and China. He served as an attaché in China. He served as executive assistant to the director of the National Security Agency (NSA). He was a faculty member of the University of Maryland (1992-2012), and was Adjunct Professor of Political Science at James Madison University, where he teaches courses in Terrorism and Counterterrorism. Newman was one of the experts called upon to testify before the JFK Assassination Records Review Board. He is a critic of the 9/11 Commission Report. He offers evidence that the Vietnam war would have been substantially different if not for Kennedy's assassination. Derived from a Kirkus review: Bold and authoritative revisionist analysis of Kennedy's Vietnam policy. Newman claims that the President planned to withdraw American forces from that war-torn country--and his case is strong. The author pictures Kennedy battling both cold war jingoism and a military- industrial lobby. Newman, working with newly declassified material, argues that Kennedy planned to get the US out of Vietnam despite a hawkish palace clique that fed him disinformation. Document by document, incident by incident, the author reveals Kennedy as desiring to avoid this wrong-time, wrong-place war. Newman's research culminates in two crucial National Security Action Memos. In one, the President formally endorsed withdrawal from Vietnam of a thousand advisors by the end of 1963. In the second, LBJ reversed the withdrawal policy and planned the escalation. This electrifying report portrays a conflicted leader who grasped realities that eluded virtually everyone else.