the press, Congress, and most of the public, ignored the crucial differences between Vietnam and Korea. "Controlled escala- tion' theories so popular in universities could not be applied successfully in Southeast Asia, for the circumstances were strik- ingly divergent. The Vietnam War in 1961-65 was not a formal military confrontation launched by an invasion across a recog- nized border, confined to a peninsula, fought by organized ar- mies, and supported by coherent populations on two clearly...