“After All, It Doesn’t Have to Be a One-Way Street”
President Kennedy sent General Paul D. Harkins to Vietnam on February 13, 1962, to head American forces in the war against the communist Viet Cong, which immediately led the Chinese to criticize the United States for expanding aggression. Although Americans arrived to assist the South Vietnamese with military training, they were given permission to return enemy fire. Herblock uses the soldier here to sound a warning that the United States appeared to be on a path toward full-scale war and to offer the promise that backing out remained an option.
President Kennedy sent General Paul D. Harkins to Vietnam on February 13, 1962, to head American forces in the war against the communist Viet Cong, which immediately led the Chinese to criticize the United States for expanding aggression. Although Americans arrived to assist the South Vietnamese with military training, they were given permission to return enemy fire. Herblock uses the soldier here to sound a warning that the United States appeared to be on a path toward full-scale war and to offer the promise that backing out remained an option.