A military authority who reinforced Kennedy’s resistance to the Joint Chiefs was retired general Douglas MacArthur, who visited him in late April. MacArthur told the president, “Anyone wanting to commit American ground forces to the mainland of Asia should have his head examined.”[43] Kennedy cited MacArthur’s judgment to his own generals for the duration of his presidency. To put U.S. combat troops into Laos or Vietnam was a line he adamantly refused to cross for the rest of his life.
