SOUTH VIET NAM: Problem of One Man

A prominent youth leader, Lieut. Colonel Nguyen Van Bong, drove last week along a highway north of Saigon. His car was riddled and set afire by a fusillade from a Communist ambush. Each month, from 250 to 300 government officials and supporters are brutally murdered by Red guerrillas. "It's like trying to swat mosquitoes," grumbled a soldier. "While you're hitting one, you're being bitten by another."

South Viet Nam is clearly the target of a new Communist offensive in South east Asia. President Ngo Dinh Diem has doughtily faced crises before. Bolstered by $1 billion in U.S. aid, Diem courageously...