Kennedy and Khrushchev each had a piece of the truth. North Vietnam was in fact sending its troops and arms through “a neutral and independent” Laos into South Vietnam. But this infiltration was part of a nationalist Communist movement that would have been ruling all of Vietnam had not Diem, backed by the Eisenhower administration, blocked an election called for by the Geneva settlement. As Kennedy argued, North Vietnam was indeed violating the neutrality of Laotian territory. But as
