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THE WAR THAT WON'T GO AWAY
Hard Choicés for Washington as
South Vietnam Slowly Sinks
Tbe war that
will
not go away
bas arisen again to
haurH
thc
UD.ited States govcmment
a.nd
its
military leackrs.
In
reeeot ..
.,ets,
suec:essful sweepto¡ Commuoist
onslaugbts
•&&úu•
"'"~S"'
South
Viernamese
.strongholds
bave
threateoed 10 re<>pen barely bealed
war wounds in
Congrw
whicb
mu.st oow debate thc course of
American reaction.
The disturbin¡¡ question is; Will
tbe U.S. allow South Vietnam. af.
ter the sacrifice of
SS.OOO
American
lives aod
the
outpollrins of"" awe·
some SISO billioo in &Jd, 10$leadily
suocumb
to
Non..h Vietnamese
ag..
gression?
Coogress. feeling some lingering
moral rcspon.sibiUty, may
ytt
allow
a few huodred miilion dollars more
in ald 10
so
10 prop up the 11úeu
so•emmen(s OOUJn& defense ma·
chine. But
il
is
certaio
t.hal
the new
Congress.
cwenmelminzly
Demo–
cratic and nearly as over–
whelJDing.ly liberal, will never
approve anotbcr dlrcct United
Sta tes miliuuy involvcment in
Southeast Asia.
Sensing
this
mood, the Commu·
nists.
it is
believcd. are nowst.riving
ror greater
tnititaty
advani.Jige.
in
prepara.tiou ror a rurure aU-<>ut
at~
tad<.
or,
if
less
Iban optimum
eon·
ditions prevaiJ,
miJOf
political
eoocessions. The
most
desired
con.
cession would be
a
coalition gov·
ernment whicli they could in turn •
sabotage and take over. In all
this.
the Communi$ts kllow President
Ford eannot alford
10
Jet the poli
ti·
caUy
setlSitiYe Victn..am &SSue spill
over in10 the U.S. elcetion year.
C.-..ftreF'ar<>~
The cease-fire tigned two years
ago was a raree cven before
the
ink
was
dry.
Not one provi$jon has
been fulñlled, exeept that U.S.
forocs h.ave been wilbdrawn and no
Jonger are Amencaas shedding
their blood wholesale.
As
a
r<$UI~
many Americans bve felt the
In·
doc:bina
war
was
fad1ns away.
lo
reality,
in
the two ycan since
the oease.-ñre, ove.r
11
quaner
r:nil–
lion Vietnam.ese oo both sidcs
ha
ve
been killcd, wounded or reponed
míssing. Casualties in
1974
nearly
equalled
lo$ses
durtn& the heigbt of
the fi¡htin¡¡
iD
1m.
Al>
estim.atcd
700,000
refut;ees hove bcen
up–
rooted by 6gbting 10 10wns. viUages
and hamlets since the ccase-llre.
A
doun
district
toWill,
seores ofbases.
and ourposts have beco captured or
ovemsn by North Victnamesc or
Viet Cong forces., lncluding vir–
tuaUy
aU
the outlying
~rri10ry
American
(otee$
once controUed.
Brcaking
~•ry
provision
o(
the
1973
treaty,
North Víelnan>
has
iD·
filtrated thousaods or
uoops
in10
Soutb Vietnam, tripled its armored
strcnglh, and almoJt doubled its
at·
lillery p.íeces and,
aircran
artillery
units. COmmunist fi¡htíng strength
2
is
cs-timated over 220,(K)(), com·
pared 10 around
160,000
al thc time
o(
the ecue-llre. The Communists
have either bu:ih or
repaared a
cloun
aU'ficlds in South V1ctnam.
They
hod no air<nft
in
the South
at allatthe cease·fire.
The infamous Ho Chí Minh
Trail
has bcen
convened
into
a
hard·surfnee, aiJ.weather roadway,
paralleled by
a
major pipeline to
within 70
miles
o(
Saigon.
Anot.hcr
"dupheate" trall
has
abo
bceo buih
in
South Vietnam.
8oth
rouLeS
ue
guarded
by
eoormous ooooentta·
tions
of
at&tia1rcraft
weapoos - au–
tomahc
weapons and the lates!
SAM missiles.
Against the new
Comruunlst
on–
slaughu the South Vietnamese
Anny
bas
maínu.ined
a relalively
good showing - eoosidering laek
or
air
suppon and
pieoemeal
fCio.
placement or weapoO$ and equlp–
mcnL
Oue
to
yeatly
rcduced
Amcncan aid.,
ARVN
ammuniuon,
alr<rall
and forocs
musl
be used
sparinaly
in· moslly defensive
rather than ofl'ensive actions..
Looking at the map of Commu·
oist stron¡holds in the Soutb. one
obscrver notes, Soutb
Vietnam
loob "n:ody for a
death
of a thou·
sandc:uts...
Sa¡d
anothcr We:ste:m
dip1omat:
"lt
docsn't look good. There is an
lrreconcilable
poliueal dift"erence
betwccn the two sides. We
can
only
hope the Commuoasl
side
wall
S10p."
Unfonunately, there
is
no reason
for such optimism. After thrce
dccades.of fighting. enduring terri·
fic
manpower
los:ses and
other
na·
tional sacrifice.s
1
it
is foolish
to
feel
the
North
Viel.nlmese
will
givc
up
now
wbcn
ult.unate
~ctory'·
seems
roorc poss1blc than cver bcforc -
as
lo03 as the United S
tates
doeso't
intervcnc dircctly or
wilh massive
aid'agaln.
Wbile
the American
public.
plagued witb domcstic econom.ic
woes, wouJd líke to símply
for~et
about Vietoam, U.S. foreign pohcy
makers
are
comin& face-10-face
with sorne
bard
pohtieal realitics.
Thc
loss
of
lndocluna eould
not
only
~>.ve
an
ímpoc:t upon the
strategic dcfcnsca:
and oommerce
of
the Free Wortd. but it "''ould
abo
be a blow 10 the prestige. integrity
and powcr of the
Uní~
States re·
garding
its
other woJ:Idwido
·COm·
mitments.
Will thc uzly &pecter of Vietoam
e~er
be
put
to flnal test? Says
onc
d1ploma~
"Tbc only way tbe 6gbt·
ins
wiiJ
end
tS
.r
alllndoehina
S1Dks
1010 !he South Ch1na Sea."
o
THE ROAD BACK
Cambodia:
The Tottering Domino
The ouster of lefl·leanin¡ Prince
Norodom Sihanollk by General
Lon Nol in
1970
marlr:ed the open·
1ng of tbe
Cambocllan
theater of
the lndoehina war. Smee then the
war has eauscd ovcr $2
b1llion in
damage and destroyed htlf the
counuy's hospitals. roads, bridges,
ears. and trucla.
The present Lon Nol govem·
ment of Cambodia contro1J no
more: than fiflee-n pc:n::tnt
of
its
own
territOry. But
in
that tcrrirory
livc.
ovcr th.ree quaners
of
thc na·
tion's inhabita.nts, most
or
the:m
in
tbe oity of Pbnom Penh. the
enemy·enoircled C..mbodían c:api·
tol that hu bcen swelled by refu·
gees ro a
population
or over
four
miIlion.
Fishtmg
has
been raging around
the eapitlll city for over five years.
but the big auneh bcpn t lillle
more thtn a
year
•so
when Com·
munist roroe.s
stmOunde<l tbc:
aty
and a11empted to bombard
11
into
submission.
Tbe Wesre:m prcss
car·
ried daily repons of tbe city's im·
pcnding fall. cxhibitins
B.o
• lmost
..lcl'-s get it
ovet
with..
auitude
to–
ward wbat appeared to be jusi
ID·
otber phase
in
the nettlesome
lndocbina war. But Pbnom Penb
obsunately refu.sed 10 surreoder
and heldon.
Today, the Kbmcr Rouge,
as
the
Communist insurgents are called,
are engaged in a new otfensive,
NEWSMAKER PROfU
Ali Bhutto
of Pakistan
"lf India builds the bomb, we
wtll
eat
leaves and
g.nw..
cvcn
¡o
bu.nyy.
but
we will
have
lO act
one
orourown!..
So deelared
Paktsta.na Prime
Mmister
Zulftkar 'Al•
Bhutto in a
&trong spcceh last M
ay
as the
shock
waves subsided (oUowin¡ t.he deto·
nation
or
lndia's first
atomic
''de–
vito," purportedly for pcaeeful
purposes..
lndia's
new.round
nu·
clear status bd dramatically al·
te:red lhe.
delica~e
po•er batanee on
lhc subcoounent.
Thou¡h be bas by no means
abandoned his irutial nuclear mus–
lnp,
Bhuuo's primary
concem dur·
lng a
lwo-day state visit
wi th
Presídent Ford in Washington last
month was
com·kntlonol
arms.
Following
the
indeciSJvo 196S ln·
dia.Pakist.a.n war, lhe
United Staite&
embaiJOCd sales
or "letbal" mtli·
l.l<)l
equípment 10 both nations.
Bhutto tried unsuec:cssfully in 1973
10 pcnuade Pn:sident Nixon to
lifl
thc
conuoversial embargo.
Now.
however, it appears Presidcnt Ford
is leaning roward granting at least
aimed at choking off the city's life.
li.D.e, the Mekon&
River.
The stran–
gulation has severely cut food and
fuel slupments; riec and ammuru·
tion stoeb may not
l.ast
anoth<r
montb.
To many Americans, the
Cam–
bodian war ls the distil1od essencc
of the Vietnamese war. The
U.S.
milita.ry incursion loto Cambodia
in
1970
provoked the fren2ied eh·
mu of anhwar dcmonsuations
in
Amerioa. Cambodia was simply the
westem
fronuer of the same
drury
war.
Lilte South Vietnam, Cambodia
is
stiU
sustaancd
by
infusion.s of
U.S.
aíd. President Ford has a l·
ready asked Congress for over
$222
miWon
in milita.ry as.si.stance,
tbougb it is very vnliltcly
the
full
amount
wiU
be
appto'\'ed.
The fall of Cambodia
can
have
only the most mcnaang impbea·
tions for 1ts larger neigbbor.
Over
twenty-thousand Nortb Vietnam·
ese
uoops
would be freed for ••·
tion in South Vietnam. poS$ibly
ha.sten.io¡ that oountry's demisc.
Sbould the <urrent Khmcr
Rouge
oft"enslve succeed in dcCeat..
ing the Lon Nol govcmmeot and
impoK a
Nonh
Vic~
doau·
natcd
rc¡imc,
thc bandwritina
eould be on the wall for Sa1gon
Cambodia may jwt tum out to be
the
domino
thtat
lcnocks
ovcr
South
Vietnam.
O
,.,_ rNVt 1'/foH
limited sales of defensivo
(anti–
tank
and anti<ttafl) wcapoO$ 10
Pakistan,
nomiDally an ally in tbe
Central Treaty or,anizatlon
(CENTO). Indio has bcen rccei•·
ing arms from thc Soviet Un.ioc.
1ts
main suppher of military ha_rd–
ware.
On lhc arms issue. Bhuuo
COn·
fidently told
Washington ncwsmen,
"1 am not unhopeful. We have
betn
disc:uss.•n& th1s maner now for
ten ycan." Paktstan's pr...ot
request for mtlnary
equipmen~
be
empbasitcd,
it
for "exclusively de·
fensive
wcapons.
for
legilimate de–
fense necds. We live in a volatiJo
part
of the· world .... our countr)'
has been dismembered and the
WEEK
ENDINO
MARCH 8, 197S