Get real, America having a few Army men in Vietnam during the 1940s and 1950s, and 1960s had nothing to do with getting into war, JFK sending in 16,000 troops and killing Vietnam’s president did that.
Kennedy blundering into the assassination of Diem in November 1963 is what I’d call the turning point as well. LBJ gets the blame for sending in combat troops the next year but as far as I can see the chaos set in motion by Diem’s death forced LBJ into choosing between a major American military role or a decision to abandon South Vietnam. Where I fault both Johnson and Nixon is in their refusal to go for the destruction of North Vietnam.
Hmmm, I don’t recall the antiwar scum chanting, “Hey, hey JFK, how many kids did you kill today?”