Foreign Relations: The Situation

FOREIGN RELATIONS

The momentous meeting was over, and White House newsmen were finally admitted to the Cabinet Room. Charles Mohr of the New York Times was in the vanguard, and he reported the next day that he had heard Defense Secretary Robert McNamara say, with considerable vehemence, to the President of the U.S.: "It would be impossible for Max to talk to these people without leaving the impression that the situation is going to hell."

The "situation," of course, was South Viet Nam, which is certainly going to hell. The "Max" was U.S. Ambassador to South Viet Nam Maxwell Taylor, who had just finished a 21-hour report to the President and top U.S. State Department and military leaders. The President took McNamara's advice, and Taylor did not hold a press conference that might have been provocative.

Try Harder, Do Better. The official communique was properly bland, saying in effect that President Johnson had instructed Taylor to go back to Viet Nam and urge the South Vietnamese government to try harder and do better. But there was one tough-sounding sentence about how North Vietnamese help for the Communist guerrillas was building up; implied was the possibility that the U.S. might, as Taylor had urged, extend the war.

Aware that the White House meeting was about to take place, and probably anticipating Taylor's recommendations, the North Vietnamese and the Chinese Communists had already started bawling charges that U.S. planes were bombing Communist installations in the so-called neutralist buffer zone between North and South Viet Nam. And hardly was the White House meeting over than the Soviet Union started squawling about how the U.S. was "playing with fire" in even considering a step up in the Vietnamese war effort.

Fact is, the Communists probably didn't have too much to worry about: although he is playing his cards close to his chest (as he should), and acting as though he will take drastic action if the Communists do not start behaving themselves in Southeast Asia (which they probably won't), the likelihood is that the President has no intention now of extending the Vietnamese war in any meaningful way.

Back to the Wolves. Max Taylor, good soldier that he is, tried to make the best of it all. After the White House session, Taylor conferred again with various State Department and Defense officials, returned at week's end for another conference with Johnson.

This time, the President did let Taylor talk to reporters, and Max had obviously got the word about the situation. "You're throwing me to the wolves again, Mr. President," he said amiably. He went on to say that he and President Johnson had "talked about all aspects of the situation—everything you can think of." He concluded by saying that his paramount duty on returning this week to Saigon would be to confer with South Vietnamese officials about subjects ranging "across the board."