Mark Moyar

They start to get their act together in 1962.

President Kennedy puts a lot of aid there.

Things are going pretty well in 1963.

And then all of a sudden, you have what we call the Buddhist crisis, which is a hugely complicated and convoluted story where supposedly some Buddhists in the population were dissatisfied with the government.

And this was all really ginned up.

And we know, in fact, the communists were helping

give the propaganda behind this, but they duped some of the American press into believing them.

And so ultimately, the US government supports a coup to overthrow President Diem in 1963.

And to me, that is a watershed moment in the war because the war effort suddenly goes off a cliff.

Now, a lot of historians have overlooked some of this, but I think it's quite clear.

We now know from North Vietnamese sources, this is a huge moment.

So the South Vietnamese government goes into a tailspin

And then we have Lyndon Johnson come in.

Kennedy's assassinated just a few weeks after President Diem.

And Lyndon Johnson in 1964 is focusing on getting reelected in the 64 election.

So everything to him has to be looked at that lens.

And so you get to the Tonkin Gulf incidents of August in 1964.

What happens is that a couple of American destroyers are out on the high seas and the North Vietnamese attack them.

And President Johnson then is confronted with decision what to do.

You know, Johnson doesn't want this in the newspaper.