The War: Suicidal Intensity

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Rewriting Mao. Both engagements underline a shift in Communist tactics. In the past, with few exceptions, the Communists abided by the classical precepts of guerrilla warfare as laid down by Mao Tse-tung: Do not take unnecessary losses and fight only when the odds are in your favor. Now, they suddenly seem willing to suffer almost limitless casualties and fight in adverse conditions. This was illustrated last week in a series of fights near Dak To, when South Vietnamese paratroopers engaged a battalion of North Vietnamese regulars. Instead of running for Cambodia, the Communists stood and fought three sharp battles, suffering 107 losses. Similarly, near Con Thien, a company of U.S. Marines made contact with a North Vietnamese company that held its ground even after the Marines helilifted three additional companies into action. Only when darkness fell did the outnumbered Communists withdraw and steal away.

Why the change? The North Vietnamese army paper explained the reason last week. Tacitly conceding that they have come to recognize the impossibility of defeating the U.S. in the field, the Communists are now banking on winning the war on the American home front. Said the paper: "The American people's protest against the war of aggression has spread increasingly throughout the U.S. Internal contradictions have developed increasingly in the ranks of the American ruling clique." Believing this, as they do, the Communists are willing to suffer huge losses in order to lure U.S. troops into action so that they can kill enough G.I.s to fan antiwar sentiments in the U.S.