The War: Pulling Together

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When the Guam parley last week turned out precisely as the Administration had billed it—a routine review of the Viet Nam war—a sense of anticlimax swept the U.S. Considering that the President had assembled a score of top aides and hauled them 8,700 miles to a remote rock in the western Pacific, spending more time in the air (36 hours) than on the ground (31 hours), it was only natural that the nation should expect dramatic results. There were none. Johnson simply reaffirmed his determination to stand fast in Viet Nam until Hanoi is ready to talk. And judging from Ho Chi Minh's envenomed rejection of the latest U.S. peace proposal, Hanoi is far from ready.

Nonetheless, a note of optimism permeated the conference. "There are many signs that we are at a favorable turning point," the President said at the outset. That theme was elaborated in detail as U.S. and South Vietnamese officials met on Nimitz Hill, the U.S. naval headquarters overlooking the Philippine Sea. Also in clear view from the spacious verandas on the Hill was a tangible reminder of the larger stakes—and risks—in the Viet Nam war: the Soviet trawler Gidrofon, laden with electronic snooping gear, lying just beyond the three-mile limit in order to monitor U.S. B-52 flights to Viet Nam and track the six Polaris subs based at Guam.

On the Run. The military situation in Viet Nam gave ample cause for confidence. South Viet Nam's Premier Nguyen Cao Ky said that the Communist forces in his country are "on the run" and pictured the supply system in the North as "in near paralysis." All the same, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara pointed out, the Reds are "by no means beaten."

Ky caused a sensation by suggesting that Hanoi ought to be hit even harder. "How long," he asked, "can Hanoi enjoy the advantage of restricted bombing of military targets? How long can the Viet Cong be permitted to take sanctuary in Cambodia? How long can supply trails through Laos be permitted to operate? How long can war matériel be permitted to come into Haiphong harbor? How long can the North be permitted to infiltrate soldiers and weapons across the demarcation line?" As to peace talks, Ky made it clear that he would not accept a coalition government that included the Viet Cong.

Red-Bound Copy. Though Ky's rhetorical questions stole the headlines, he spent most of his time on Guam assessing the progress that was being made in the "other war." He reported that 2,500,000 acres of farm land had been redistributed. In the rural pacification program, he noted that 24 of the 103 South Vietnamese civilians executed by the Viet Cong in the past week were members of revolutionary development teams—a measure of "the uneasiness they cause the Viet Cong."