HENRY KISSINGER, And I Quote
Involvement in Vietnam was not--as the critics were later to assert--a conspiracy of the best and brightest brought into government by Kennedy and inherited by Johnson but the application of principles pursued for a decade by two presidents of both parties. Like his predecessors, Kennedy considered Vietnam a crucial link in America's overall geopolitical position. He believed, as had Truman and Eisenhower, that preventing a Communist victory in Vietnam was a vital American interest. Like his predecessors, he viewed the Communist leadership in Hanoi and Beijing as a surrogate of global Kremlin designs.
HENRY KISSINGER, Ending the Vietnam War: A History of America's Involvement in and Extrication from the Vietnam War
