A STEADILY GROWING LAND WAR IN ASIA
In a lead editorial July 15 The New York Times [international edition] stated rather bluntly what has not yet been “officially acknowledged" by Washington. The "United States is fighting a land war of steadily growing proportions in Asia." The big New York daily, which is one of the most serious capitalist newspapers in the’
U.S. and by far the most influential, voiced foreboding, "This is a momentous development in American history and it should be treated as such and not as a minor and soon-to-be- ended expedition to advise and bolster the Saigon Government,"
As the Times sees it, "A major effort,.:of great cost in men, money and materiel, stretching over a period of years, is not in sight."
If the Vietnam government and China were to "give in" after this "monsoon or the next one," there would be reason for "rejoicing," in the opinion of the editors. But this is scarcely likely. The "South Vietnamese are close to the point where they will be unable to carry on as the major fighting force."
Drawing up an inventory of the situation, the Times admits that the tactics being used by the Vietnamese today are proving as successful as when they were used against the French and against Chiang Kai-shek, It admits that the government in Saigon is "perennially shaky" and that its military leadership is “poor.” "There is always the possibility that a future government in Saigon might ask the Americans to leave, thus ending the legal basis for the American presence..."
The editors see three alternatives. It would be a "disas~ trous escalation...to carry the war further and more heavily into North Vietnam, with the strong possibility of directly involving Communist China, not to mention the Soviet Union," For this imperfalist newspaper it would be "equally disastrous" to "get out now," The editors therefore propose that Johnson should seek "to establish a series of unconquerable beachheads along the coast and a perimeter around Saigon, and then hold on until the situation changes and negotiations on honorable terms become possible." ‘What is most significant abqut the stand taken by the Times is that it sees no real hope of victory. On the contrary it is very much afraid that Johnson{s“war will end in disaster.
Up to now the American forces have not been badly hurt. In fact they have been able to wantonly bomb and murder clear up to the border of China without serious reprisal. The war, however, like all wars up to now, will not be settled in the air but on the ground, Thus sooner or later, American troops will find themselves involved in large numbers in a war of the most costly kind and one over which hangs the dread possibility of becoming converted into a nuclear conflict.
Johnson is now compelled to begin speaking more frankly about the need for more troops, and a little later he will be talking about the need for more American lives and sacrifices. On July 13 he told a press conference that "new and serious decisions" might require an increase in U.S. ground forces in south Vietnam, The following day Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara said that it
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would be necessary to call up reserves and enlarge the draft. He then flew to Saigon, The first request put to him by the puppet government was for more American troops. Saigon announced that its forces were to be increased.
It is not likely that there will be any rush to the Saigon recruiting offices, however, despite the rate of pay made possible by handouts from the U.S.Treasury. A Reuters dispatch July 135 said that teen-agers in south Vietnam are maiming themselves to escape military service. A common practice is to cut off the right index finger. Police said they had picked up sixty-six "draft dodgers" in the past forty-eight hours in Saigon and sent them'to military training centers. There are so many draft dodgers that the government plans to form some of them into a "special corps of front-line coolies," including those who have maimed themselves.
This is the situation as Johnson begins his ground war in Asia. What will it look like as more and more American GI's write home telling the folks the truth about this dirty war?