Seeing Things Through

Much of the news and photographs coming out of Viet Nam last week dealt with some veteran troupers -- rather than troops. Playing to as many as 15,000 men in Pleiku and Cam Ranh Bay, Comic Bob Hope marked his 25th year entertaining U.S. servicemen in the field with some well-received variations on well-known routines. Sample: "You Catholics will be glad to know you can now eat Spam on Fridays." Traveling much the same circuit during his first Viet Nam visit, Evangelist Billy Graham was astounded at the size of his turnouts. When 2,500 G.I.s showed up to hear him at Long Binh, 13 miles from Saigon, he said: "Somebody must have told you Bob Hope was coming."

Weary U.S. troops found the change more than welcome, for two less martial men than Hope and Graham can scarcely be imagined. The fact that they could challenge the war for attention was evidence that the fighting had slacked off even before this week's formal 48-hour Christmas truce went into effect. A good many people, moreover, were trying hard to extend the lull into a permanent ceasefire.

Greetings from Ho. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Arthur Goldberg presented Secretary-General U Thant with a letter urging him to "take whatever steps you consider necessary to bring about the necessary discussions which could lead to such a cease-fire." The letter represented no change in U.S. policy but, to underscore Washington's determination to explore all avenues to peace, Secretary of State Dean Rusk announced that the U.S. would give Thant "maximum latitude" in his diplomatic probes--which presumably meant admitting the Viet Cong to any peace talks. In his annual Christmas message, Pope Paul VI stressed that "good will holds the key to peace," but added pointedly: "The difficulty is that the responsible authorities of the two sides must make use of this key at the same time."

This, of course, is what Dean Rusk has been saying all along: that a little "reciprocity" is required from Ho Chi Minh and his colleagues if talks are ever to get started. Ho's response last week was to send a holiday message to the American people, expressing "cordial wishes for peace and happiness," but at the same time blasting U.S. leaders for waging a "criminal war."

Ho's reaction underscores the difficulty of ever getting the Communists to any conference table. In fact, an increasing number of experts think that the war could end without any formal negotiations at all. Writing in the current Foreign Affairs, former Presidential Adviser McGeorge Bundy, now president of the Ford Foundation, speculates that the Communists may quietly call it quits once they become convinced that U.S. power and perseverance will deny them victory. "If the Communists do decide that their present purposes exceed their capacity," says Bundy, "may they not prefer a private decision to a public admission?"

Staying Power. If the Communists did indeed simply fade away, it would be largely because of the military progress the U.S. has made in the year since Lyndon Johnson launched his abortive "peace offensive." U.S. strength has been built up during the year from 181,000 troops to 371,000. The Communists, who in 1965 were on the verge of overrunning South Viet Nam, have been prevented from mounting a single sizable offensive or achieving a major victory in all of 1966. The aggressive search-and-destroy tactics of U.S. troops broke up the enemy's plans and often his base camps, punished and scattered his units and gave him little time to rest or recuperate between engagements. They also cost the Communists 50,000 dead v. 4,771 American and 8,923 South Vietnamese dead. And the air strikes on the North, though controversial and still carefully restrained, made it more difficult and costly for the Communists to wage war.

"Fortunately," said McGeorge Bundy, "the American people have demonstrated that their staying power in this effort is much greater than either friend or foe expected. The true value of the United States as an ally and friend rests upon the fact that this is a nation which sees things through and tries to see them straight."

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