Vietnam
This chapter chronicles Kennan’s emergence as a public critic of US involvement in the Vietnam War fifteen years after he had warned against a US military commitment in Indochina. This episode echoed both his earlier strategic vision in East Asia—which asserted the absence of vital US interests on the mainland—and the earlier dilemma he faced in reconciling that vision with his assessment of the importance of maintaining US prestige and credibility there. The chapter highlights how Kennan declared that his doctrine of containment was not applicable in Vietnam, but that he avoided advocating complete military withdrawal until US prestige was irretrievably lost there.
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