National Affairs: Red Alert

As Chinese Communist shells slammed into the Nationalist offshore islands of Quemoy and Matsu last week, ending a three-month lull in the Formosa Strait, military strategists of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization sounded a Red alert at a SEATO meeting in Washington. Warned Admiral Harry D. Felt, U.S. commander in chief in the Pacific: "The Southeast Asian peninsula is a target for Communist China, and Laos is the first point of entry." Another danger spot, said Felt, was shaky South Viet Nam, under "worsening" pressure by Communist guerrillas (TIME, May 2).

Meeting outside Asia for the first time since its formation in 1954, eight-member-SEATO braced for post-summit Communist boldness in secret strategy sessions, laid the groundwork for the SEATO foreign ministers' meeting to be opened this week by Vice President Nixon. While SEATO strategists were discussing the Red Chinese menace, the U.S. Air Force announced that it was getting ready to deploy a striking force of 120 supersonic jet fighters and other aircraft on maneuvers in Thailand, Formosa and the Philippines. Operation "Mobile Yoke," said the Air Force, was planned six months ago, just happened to be announced in a week when Communist artillery started firing.