THE WAR: New Pressures to End It

The knowledge that the U.S. military force in Viet Nam is declining at the rate of 14,300 a month and will be down to 184,000 by Dec. 1—a 66% drop since the alltime high of 543,054 in February 1969—has served to blunt much of the pressure on Richard Nixon for an immediate end to the war. Almost cyclically, however, reflecting U.S. frustration over the long and unpopular war, pressure builds up in Washington for a quicker and more explicit declaration of intention to withdraw from Viet Nam than the President has been ready to make. Now the pressure is on again, and much of it this time has been produced by a pair of antiwar proposals pending in Congress. Part of it also emanated from a controversial new proposal advanced by former Defense Secretary Clark Clifford.

In the Senate, the McGovern-Hatfield amendment to the draft bill—an updated version of a measure that was defeated 55-39 last year—will reach a vote this week; it seeks to force the withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Indochina by Dec. 31 by cutting off all funds for the continued deployment of troops there by that date. The House, meanwhile, is considering the Nedzi-Whalen amendment to the military procurement authorization bill, which would cut off spending for weapons for U.S. forces in Viet Nam after Dec. 31.

Fairly Free Rein. Since massive supplies for Viet Nam are already in the pipeline, the Nedzi-Whalen measure could have little effect on the course of the war. Nonetheless, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Edward Hebert claims that the proposal's psychological effect could be "disastrous," and the Administration has been combatting it with a series of White House breakfasts for Congressmen. Despite massive lobbying by John Gardners Common Cause, the amendment has little chance of success. It will, however, result in an interesting and useful bench mark: the vote will represent the first tally on the war since the House moved in January to record teller balloting, requiring each Representative to stand up and be counted.

To widen their base of support, the McGovern-Hatfield amendment's backers have added two important provisions: a clause that would give the President a 60-day leeway after the Dec. 31 deadline if arrangements for the release of U.S. war prisoners were not made by that time, and another that protects the President's powers to provide for the safe withdrawal of U.S. troops. The latter, in fact, has been interpreted by some congressional observers as an escape clause that would give the President fairly free rein while ending the war on his own terms. "I think you can safely say that's how we'd interpret it," said one Administration official.