Part one. The political context. Vietnam: an episode in the cold war / Robert A. Divine -- A way of thinking: the Kennedy administration's initial assumptions about Vietnam and their consequences / Brian VanDeMark -- From the Colorado to the Mekong / Lloyd C. Gardner -- Hanoi's response to American policy, 1961-1965: crossed signals? / William J. Duiker -- Part two. The military context. The zen of escalation: containment and commitment in Southeast Asia / John Prados -- Conspiracy of silence: LBJ, the Joint Chiefs, and escalation of the war in Vietnam / George C. Herring -- Part three. Kennedy and Johnson. Lyndon Johnson and the legacy of Vietnam / William Conrad Gibbons -- The Kennedy-Johnson transition: the case for policy reversal / John M. Newman -- NSAM 263 and NSAM 273: manipulating history / Larry Bernan -- Part four. The Soviet dimension. Turnabout? The Soviet policydilemma in the Vietnamese conflict / Ilya V. Gaiduk.