The War: Gathering Protest

There was no reason for doubt left:

President Nixon's eight-month period of relative immunity from criticism on the Viet Nam war was over. The opponents of the war came out spoiling for a fight. A freshman Republican Senator, New York's conservative-turned-liberal, Charles Goodell, even had the temerity to introduce legislation asking the Congress to take the unheard-of step of cutting off all funds for U.S. participation in the war as of December 1, 1970. Of course, there is virtually no chance for his measure to become law.

But the proposal served to reopen debate on the war, largely muted since Nixon took office.

Arkansas Senator J. W. Fulbright seized on Goodell's initiative, which he called "ingenious," to announce that he will resume war hearings in his Foreign Relations Committee. Two dozen Democratic Senators and Representatives tried to make the war a sharply partisan issue for the first time. They pledged their support of students who are planning a national Moratorium Day of antiwar protest on Oct. 15.

Such attacks did not yet mean serious congressional trouble for Nixon, nor did they necessarily indicate that the patience of much of the rest of America had yet run out on the President. But Nixon seemed visibly on the defensive at his press conference. He bluntly dismissed the Goodell cutoff plan as representing "a defeatist attitude." He said it would preclude any movement toward peace until that cutoff date, since "any incentive for the enemy to negotiate is destroyed if he is told in advance if he just waits for 18 months, we'll be out anyway." Nixon seemed goaded into insisting that he hoped to end the war even faster, although the goal he stated of being out "before the end of 1970 or the middle of 1971" extends past Goodell's deadline. "We're on a course that is going to end this war," he declared. "It will end much sooner if we can have a united front behind our very reasonable proposals." But Nixon did not convincingly explain how his course will achieve peace, or how an appeal issued in public for a façade of unity could possibly have much effect on the watching North Vietnamese. In any event, last week's outburst of criticism suggested that a united front on Viet Nam now is only a wishful thought.

Kind of Micawberism. Perhaps the most serious voice in the new chorus of protest is that of Democratic National Chairman Senator Fred Harris, who rallied Senators Edmund Muskie, George McGovern and Kennedy to a council of antiwar. They indicated that they will introduce resolutions expressing the intent of Congress that the U.S. withdraw from the war as speedily as possible. "It is time to take the gloves off on Viet Nam," said Harris. "I'm afraid that Mr. Nixon is rapidly losing the advantage he had by virtue of the fact that he could say, 'I didn't start this war.' I'm very alarmed that he really doesn't have a plan. His plan is a kind of Micawberism that maybe something will turn up."