The Vietnam conflict figures prominently in the presidential recordings of Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon. Below we have collected some clips related to the topic.

January 8, 1963: Status Report on Vietnam
	Less than a week after the Battle of Ap Bac in South Vietnam, President Kennedy invited legislative leaders to the White House to hear a briefing on the campaign from Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. During the course of his report, McNamara would propose that Army Chief of Staff Gen. Earle G. Wheeler tour South Vietnam to conduct a more intensive study of the war.
January 15, 1963: Dispatching the Wheeler Mission
	President Kennedy met with his senior military advisors immediatly preceding their departure on a fact-finding trip to Vietnam. The Wheeler Mission, named for Army Chief of Staff Gen. Earle G. Wheeler, had been proposed by the Joint Chiefs the previous week following the Battle of Ap Bac, the first major confrontation between South Vietnamese and Vietcong forces.
February 2, 1963: The Wheeler Report
	Three days after he returned to the United States after his fact-finding mission to South Vietnam, Wheeler briefed the president on the state of the U.S. advisory mission in Vietnam. In the process, he gave President Kennedy a series of recommendations for improving South Vietnam's military capabilities in its war against the Communist-dominated National Liberation Front, or Vietcong.
May 27, 1964: LBJ and Richard Russell
	President Johnson reveals his deeply conflicted thinking on Vietnam, a profound sense of anxiety absent from his public remarks on the subject. The exchange offers an intimate and revealing portrait of Johnson weighing perhaps the most difficult decision he ever had to make.
February 7, 1965: The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
	President Johnson expresses dismay at recent proposals, prepared by his most senior civilian officials, for U.S. action in Vietnam. Speaking with Secretary McNamara about various options open to the administration, Johnson reflects on the August 1964 Tonkin Gulf Resolution and its implications for an expanded American military commitment.
July 7, 1965: The Logic of Escalation
	President Johnson tries to convince Dr. Martin Luther-King, Jr., of his rationale for his war-fighting strategy and the dangers of pulling out.
August 13, 1965: Eisenhower's Views on Vietnam
	President Johnson speaks with former President Dwight D. Eisenhower about the nature of America's commitment to Southeast Asia. Expressing his support for Johnson, Eisenhower points out that current conditions in Vietnam differ widely from those of 1955, necessitating an expanded U.S. military presence.
November 2, 1965: Assessing the War
	Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara offers President Johnson a mixed review of the military situation in Vietnam. He also recounts for Johnson an unflattering portrait of the South Vietnamese government, provided by Dr. Henry A. Kissinger, which appeared that morning in the Washington Post.
February 1, 1966: Dealing with Critics
	President Johnson tries to convince Senator Eugene McCarthy to tone down his public criticism of the administration's Vietnam policies and in the process gives his interpretation of the Kennedy administration's involvement in the assassination of Diem.
August 3, 1972: Nixon and Kissinger Discuss their "Decent Interval" Plan for Withdrawl from Vietnam
	The overthrow of the South Vietnamese government two years after the withdrawal of American ground forces fueled speculation that President Nixon adopted a "decent interval" exit strategy, one designed to delay South Vietnam's collapse for a long enough period after Nixon withdrew so that its defeat would not appear to be Nixon's fault. Nixon and Kissinger denied this. In this clip, Nixon and Kissinger discussed adopting a decent interval exit strategy to hold South Vietnam "together a year or two."