JOHN F. KENNEDY AND VIETNAM. THE FALL OF CAMELOT Known at the time as “the best and the brightest”, the Kennedy Administration (1961-1963) faced up to a host of international crises, though none with such far-reaching effects and consequences as the outbreak of the Vietnamese War, ordered by President Kennedy. This book analyses the political and psychological developments that led the US, under the leadership of John F. Kennedy, into a war that would reshape its modern history. “Now we have a problem in making our power credible, and Vietnam is the place”.