True story: JFK was nervous about his too-long answer on South Vietnam, but trusted Cronkite to ...

[Kid Berwyn]

2. What Salinger wanted to make clear...

“In the final analysis, it's their war," (JFK) said. "They're the ones who have to win it or lose it. We can help them. We can give them equipment. We can send our men out there as advisers. But they have to win it -- the people of Vietnam -- against the Communists."

President Kennedy said he would not send US draftees to fight in another country’s civil war and signed National Security Action Memorandum 263 to put the Administration’s official policy in writing. Read NSAM 263 here:

https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/nsam-jfk/nsam-263.htm

Four days after the assassination of President Kennedy in Dallas, LBJ reverses the policy to stay and support South Vietnam in its "contest against the externally directed and supported Communist conspiracy in NSAM 273:

https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/nsam-lbj/nsam-273.htm

Something else: President Kennedy would never have fallen for and foisted the Golf of Tonkin “Big Lie” on America.