A War of Angry Cousins

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Ambassador Andrew Young called the Southeast Asia situation "dangerous" and urged the combatants "to move the dispute to the negotiating table." Unaligned nations seemed to be lining up behind the proposed U.S. resolution, while China and the Soviet Union offered diametrically opposed resolutions, one condemning the aggression by Viet Nam, the other condemning aggression by China. On Saturday, in protest against the council's decision to give the floor to the representative of Pol Pot's defeated regime in Cambodia, Soviet Delegate Mikhail Kharlamov stalked out. He was followed moments later by the Czechoslovak delegation. Kharlamov was careful to leave an aide in attendance at the table, but it was the first Soviet walkout from the Security Council since the Korean War.

Some foreign diplomats referred to Peking's possible use of Washington as a tool in its invasion strategy. Administration officials scoffingly denied anything like the connivance alleged by Moscow, and persuasively insisted that Carter had indeed tried to deter Teng from any "unwise" action. The question was whether Washington, eager to normalize relations with Peking, might not have been inadvertently enlisted in China's diplomatic preparation for the attack. "Now we know why China showed such haste to normalize relations with the U.S.," said Senator Charles Percy after the invasion.

At week's end, there were indications that the Chinese were encountering tougher terrain and tougher resistance than they had perhaps expected. Presumably, they had the might and numbers to penetrate as far as they chose. But could they extricate themselves from the historic quicksand with similar ease? The gravestones at Dien Bien Phu. The carcasses of Marine helicopters near Danang. Other place names, other landmarks testify to the tragic fortunes of outsiders who visited Viet Nam in the past and later wished they had never come. In meting out their "lesson," the Chinese—like the French and Americans before them—could find Viet Nam to be an unruly classroom.