Key decisions about the Vietnam War were made in a single room where most of the conversations were recorded.  In this 2-session class, Jess Velona uses tapes rarely heard before to explore this window into history. You’ll listen toturning points such as the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, Johnson’s tortured decision to escalate the war, his dismissal of antiwar protesters as “mentally diseased,” and his belated recognition that his presidency had been destroyed. You’ll listen along when Johnson discovers, at the end of the 1968 campaign, that his new bid for peace is being sabotaged by candidate Nixon himself.  Once Nixon takes office, explore his struggle to contain the wave of protests set off by the invasion of Cambodia and his shock of the Pentagon Papers leak.