Since the invasion, Americans have awakened to see more clearly the consequences of America’s recent disengagement from global affairs. The list of damages here is long and demoralizing. It includes all the dire presidential “red lines” against Russia, China, Iran, Syria, and North Korea that America never enforced; all the trade and defense agreem

The United States picked up the slack. Even before the outbreak of hostilities in Korea, the Truman administration had begun to finance French forces in Vietnam. By 1953, America had spent more than $2.6 billion ($21.2 billion currently) in military aid and had converted the war into part of the larger struggle of democracy against Communism.

However, two aspects of the early decisions on Vietnam, early steps on what was to be a very long road, that Johnson took during that Christmas vacation on the ranch, are clear: first, whatever steps he took during that vacation, he took as well steps to conceal them, to keep them secret from Congress and the American people; and, second, the steps