If you look at a resource map of SE Asia, you can see a lot of what of the war was about.

Getting back to the original subject, I was in a computer class at Drexel then [Institute of Technology] when the shots were fired. When I left class, a friend told that the President had been shot. My reaction was "President Hagerty?!" the rather unpopular president of the school. Incidently, he was a friend of the Kennedy family. When word got around, we all went over to the student center to watch the proceedings. Going to class seemed rather pointless.