A Turn for the Worse in Vietnam
H., I.
"We have been patient for five years with those who offered a military solution in Vietnam," said Senator McGovern. "Now let us be equally patient in the effort to find a peaceful...
...Little encouraging to democrats or socialists is likely to follow negotiations, but to escalate the war can only lead to something far worse, a magnification of disaster and death...
...Now let us be equally patient in the effort to find a peaceful solution...
...Whatever gain for peace there may be in submitting the Vietnam issue to the UN has largely been cancelled out by this brutal and disastrous decision to resume the bombing...
...politics...
...We shall return in detail to this matter in our next issue, but here are a few interim notes: • Hanoi shares responsibility for the escalation of the war...
...If one may trust Averill Harriman's statement of Feb...
...This is a political fact of great importance...
...A critically ambiguous issue remains the status of the NLF, the Vietcong political arm, in future negotiations...
...We support such a move...
...Political realism suggests that negotiations will lead to a recognition of Viet Cong power in South Vietnam, with the hope that something like free elections under UN supervision may provide a check to that power...
...Senate, led by Fulbright and Morse...
...Taylor or Gen...
...To sustain and strengthen this Senatorial opposition should now be a primary task for the peace movement, so that criticism of the war can be transformed into a mainstream issue of U.S...
...To do that would leave little to negotiate...
...Its defenders say the U.S...
...went no further than 37 days...
...The only encouraging news has been the crystallization of a significant opposition in the U.S...
...but we do not support the Hanoi demand that the Viet Cong be recognized in advance as "the sole legitimate" spokesman for South Vietnam...
...despite the likelihood that large sections of world opinion would again turn against the U.S...
...I. H...
...This, if true, should remove a barrier to negotiations, or what the Communists say is a barrier...
...This expectation, whether realistic or not, whether expressed by Gen...
...what cannot be recaptured militarily is not to be snatched away in negotiations...
...After that, the U.S...
...We have been patient for five years with those who offered a military solution in Vietnam," said Senator McGovern...
...Giap, should be condemned by everyone who wants peace in Vietnam...
...military build-up during those 37 days exceeded that of the other side, thereby undercutting the rationale that bombing was required by security needs...
...and despite the revelation that the U.S...
...Like certain elements in Washington, the North Vietnamese seem still to look forward to a full military victory...
...despite the certainty that it could only call into question the sincerity of LBJ's "peace offensive...
...peace offensive" was insincere...
...Why then—perhaps Staughton Lynd will tell us—did not Hanoi call Johnson's bluff and thereby expose him...
...6, the U.S...
...Why did not Hanoi and the Viet Cong propose immediate negotiations at which all belligerents would be recognized...
...What has been lost politically can not be recaptured militarily...
...is gracelessly preparing to accept the right of the NLF to appear in its own name at the bargaining table...
...resumed bombing of North Vietnam—despite the acknowledged fact that such bombing has little military value...
...But the official "patience" of the U.S...
Vol. 13 • March 1966 • No. 2
