Even while half-heartedly encouraging a coup that toppled and killed Ngo Dinh Diem, the South Vietnamese leader, Kennedy seemed determined to draw down the American presence and avoid a future quagmire there.
The company's strategic quagmire took on a superstitious quality when the estate itself became a hive of bad omens, with parts of the office complex flooding on an annual basis.
Now, Parliament has pulled the rug out from under him, and Mr. Johnson is at risk of falling into the same Brexit quagmire that dragged down his predecessor as prime minister, Theresa May.