World: THE PUZZLE OF THE LULL

FOR the sixth week, the battlefields of South Viet Nam continued to be un-accustomedly quiet. There was, declared General Creighton Abrams, the U.S. commander in Viet Nam, "decreased activity" on the enemy's part. "But what it means I don't know," he added. Other experts, in Washington and in Saigon, share the general's puzzlement. Was this finally the long-awaited Communist signal for military de-escalation of the conflict and thus a hopeful step toward peace? Or was it, as in the past, simply a period of Communist rebuilding and refitting in preparation for yet another...