President John F. Kennedy and Vietnam, A Conversation with Marc Selverstone
Join The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza on Friday, November 22 at 11:00 a.m. with presidential historian Marc Selverstone, moderated by fellow presidential scholar Jeffrey Engel. Selverstone’s book, The Kennedy Withdrawal: Camelot and the American Commitment to Vietnam, uses presidential recordings to offer an inside look at presidential decision-making in this period of the Vietnam War.
In October 1963, the United States publicly proposed the removal of American troops from Vietnam, earning President John F. Kennedy an enduring reputation as a skeptic on the war. In fact, Kennedy was ambivalent about withdrawal and was largely detached from its planning. Its details were the handiwork of Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, who turned a loosely defined presidential aspiration into a systemic program for a U.S. troop withdrawal. Its announcement in October 1963 ultimately served Kennedy’s political needs, allowing him to limit American involvement while preserving the U.S. commitment to South Vietnam.
Program tickets include a copy of the book and a light lunch reception. Book signing to follow the program. Tickets do not include Museum admission.
Marc J. Selverstone heads the acclaimed Presidential Recordings Program at the University of Virginia's Miller Center, where he edits the secret White House tapes of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon. He has written for the Washington Post, Atlantic, and U.S. News and World Report, and appeared on C-Span radio. He is the author of Constructing the Monolith: The United States, Great Britain, and International Communism, 1945-1950, winner of the Stuart L. Bernath Book Prize from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations and is associate professor in presidential studies at the University of Virginia.
Distance From Key Points of Interest
- Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center: 0.56 miles
- Dallas Love Field Airport: 5.81 miles
- DFW International Airport: 15.92 miles
- AT&T Stadium: 16.68 miles
Admission
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