Part: 1234         Session: 12345         Page 385386387388389390391392393394395396397398399400401402403404405406407408409410411412413414415416417418419420421 of 512

In the Vietnam business?

Yes. Did you think that he was going to be more prone to intervening militarily?

I had a very high opinion of Kennedy's savvy. It's really hard now to think about how I thought about Kennedy in his presidential term, whether he would be -- I think that my answer to that would be that yes, I think that Kennedy was intelligent enough -- which, God knows, he was -- to see the extreme danger of the U.S. continuing involvement, and therefore to try to negotiate an end to this involvement. At least, I think that Kennedy should have been that way. I cannot say to you that at the time that I really thought that he would do that. And of course, everything was put to such a sudden end, we don't really know. It's conceivable that Kennedy really would have withdrawn those 14,000 American troops between -- when he said he would in October, and the end of the year. But, of course, he was assassinated in the meanwhile. There's no question in my mind that Kennedy was intelligent enough and savvy -- savvy isn't really the word -- to know that that was really the sensible and practical course for the U.S. to take. Whether he would have followed through on that, I really have a lot of doubts. But --

So you think that his promise was somewhat disingenuous? Do you think his promise was somewhat disingenuous?

[laughter] You're trying to make me answer that, and I guess, from where I'm sitting now, thirty years later, I think I have to say, with all that conversation that I just was trying to avoid your question [laughter], I think I'd have to say that I think now that