The War: Non-Offers from Hanoi

Does the Johnson Administration genuinely want a peaceful settlement in Viet Nam? The question has been asked and answered scores of times in the past year. Last week, as the U.S. 1st Air Cavalry Division battled North Vietnamese regulars in the fiercest, costliest fighting of the war (see THE WORLD), the issue came up again—this time with an implication that the Administration had summarily rejected a so-called "peace feeler" from Hanoi last year.

When Government officials denied that any "meaningful" offer had been made or refused, pundits and editorial writers all but accused Administration officials of lying; some went so far as to picture—from Washington—a nationwide "crisis of confidence" in President Johnson's policies.

Deep Recall. As in most press-fueled controversies, the facts were largely obscured by the furor. Last week's free-for-all started with an article in Look in which CBS Newsman Eric Sevareid described—as he had on TV last summer—a conversation that he had with Adlai Stevenson shortly before his death. In a section buried deep in the article, Sevareid recalled that Stevenson had talked of behind-the-scenes arrangements made by U.N. Secretary-General U Thant in the early fall of 1964 to have a North Vietnamese emissary and a U.S. delegate open talks in neutral Rangoon.

Stevenson is quoted as saying that "someone in Washington" had at first said such talks would have to wait until after the presidential election, but when U Thant tried again around the first of the year, Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara "flatly opposed the attempt." U Thant was "furious," and "there can be no doubt," wrote Sevareid, "that Adlai Stevenson, who was working closely with U Thant in these attempts, was convinced that these opportunities should have been seized, whatever their ultimate result."

Rusk's Antenna. The essential facts of the story—minus Stevenson's posthumous opinions—were reported when they were first leaked to the press by U Thant early this year. Nonetheless, no sooner had Sevareid's piece appeared last week than reporters demanded more explicit details from the Administration. Secretary McNamara retorted angrily: "There is not one word of truth in the remarks made about me or the position attributed to me." White House Press Secretary Bill Moyers declined even to discuss the story, explaining: "I follow the President's advice of a long time ago, in not commenting on what dead men either said or might not have said."

Finally, State Department Spokesman Robert McCloskey admitted that the U.S. had indeed rejected U Thant's suggestions for a conference—through Secretary of State Dean Rusk, not McNamara. McCloskey's unfortunately worded comment was that "we saw nothing to indicate that Hanoi was prepared for peace talks, and the Secretary of State said he would recognize it when it came. His antenna is sensitive."