In this chapter, I first provide examples of what Orientalist discourse looks like in the context of Vietnam, presenting evidence from elite media outlets (e.g., The New York Times) and secondary scholarship by Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky (2002) and Daniel Hallin (1986). By conducting critical discourse analysis (CDA), I investigate the record for evidence of Orientalist discourse among American policymakers closely involved in Vietnam, from 1964 to 1969. I also look for what Roland Paris (2002) has termed “trigger words” by searching LexisNexis databases (The New York Times and Congressional Records) for the nine Orientalist frames identified by Basem Alatom (1997). I compare this evidence with other secondary scholarly sources and argue that what we are seeing is discourse centered on Communism as a threat, rather than Orientalism. I then proceed to analyze the pertinent National Security Files housed at the LBJ Presidential Library (1964–1969).