Time Essay: HOW SHOULD AMERICANS FEEL?

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The American appetite for self-blame can be just as dangerous as heedlessness or irresponsibility. After meeting with Secretary of State Kissinger last week, onetime Under Secretary of State George Ball said: "The thing that alarms me the most is the attitude of wringing hands, that 'no one will believe America again.' That's just nonsense. Most of our allies feel we should have got out of Viet Nam long ago and are happy that the exodus has finally been accomplished."

Given a wiser policy, the exodus could have been accomplished less bitterly, with less damage to the American reputation. But basically Ball is right.

America cannot escape responsibility for Viet Nam. Nor can the recognition of Saigon's own fatal weakness, which is ultimately to blame, assuage the national grief for the Vietnamese in their final agony. But America did not enlist in the war for life. There cannot be an infinite cycle of protests, recrimination and guilt. The U.S. has paid for Viet Nam—many times over. A phase of American history has finished. It is time to begin anew.