How the American Intellectual Elite Decided to Oppose the War in Vietnam

Asia intruded itself upon the American consciousness. In some ways, the Kennedy response was therefore an anachronism. A substantial proportion of the American intellectual elite was ready to be convinced that we had no place in Southeast Asia, that the domino theory was unreasonable, and that it was neither practical nor desirable for the United States to impose its culture or style of government upon the rest of the world.