The Kennedy Withdrawal: Camelot and the American Commitment to Vietnam
Marc J. Selverstone
Nov 2022 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Lee Goettl
headphones
Audiobook
10 hr 53 min
Unabridged
family_home
Eligible
info
reportRatings and reviews aren’t verified Learn More
Want a 1 hr 5 min sample? Listen anytime, even offline.
Add
About this audiobook
In October 1963, the White House publicly proposed the removal of US troops from Vietnam, earning President Kennedy an enduring reputation as a skeptic on the war. In fact, Kennedy was ambivalent about withdrawal and was largely detached from its planning. Marc J. Selverstone reveals that the withdrawal statement gave Kennedy political cover, allowing him to sustain support for US military assistance. Its details were the handiwork of Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, whose ownership of the plan distanced it from the president. Selverstone's use of the presidential tapes, alongside declassified documents, memoirs, and oral histories, lifts the veil on this legend of Camelot. Withdrawal planning was never just about Vietnam as it evolved over the course of fifteen months. For McNamara, it injected greater discipline into the US assistance program. For the military, it was largely an unwelcome exercise. For JFK, it allowed him to preserve the US commitment while ostensibly limiting it. The Kennedy Withdrawal offers an inside look at presidential decision-making in this liminal period of the Vietnam War and makes clear that portrayals of Kennedy as a dove are overdrawn. His proposed withdrawal was in fact a cagey strategy for keeping the United States involved in the fight-a strategy the country adopted decades later in Afghanistan.
About the author
Marc J. Selverstone heads the acclaimed Presidential Recordings Program at the University of Virginia's Miller Center. He is the author of Constructing the Monolith, winner of the Stuart L. Bernath Book Prize, and is associate professor in presidential studies at the University of Virginia.
Lee Goettl resides in the Midwest with his wife, daughter, and three dogs, enjoying all things book-related. He has recorded over eighty audiobooks, including playing two characters in Seth Rogen's Yearbook. He also works as a voice artist for commercials, e-learning, and medical narration.
Rate this audiobook
Tell us what you think.
Listening information
Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can read books purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
