Avoid US entanglement in Indochina. In the early 1960's, before the Vietnam war, the United States were regarded as the shining city on the hill by most young people in western Europe, with JFK as their political hero and the American way of life as something to aspire to, by 1968, less than a decade later, after the USA had become directly engaged in Indochina, most young people had become pretty obviously anti-american, with anti-war protestors chanting "Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh" in the streets of European cities and the American way of life became something to be avoided.