Vietnam: Up Front and At Home Back on Capitol Hill
KINGSBURY, ROGER
Back on Capitol Hill By Roger Kingsbury Washington Last fall, a Midwestern Congressman who prefers to remain anonymous was invited to the White House along with 50 Democratic colleagues for an...
...The pressure is awful and these men are exhausted...
...Why shouldn't I stop the bombing...
...But in the last few weeks I've started to get letters saying, 'Let's negotiate and get out...
...and Rusk nearly dozed through the ceremony...
...Conversations with others on the Hill seem to bear out this view that concern about Vietnam has been crystalized by the Communist offensive...
...That's what's wrong in Vietnam...
...What troubled me most of all is that there was no attempt to level with us, to say: 'Look, boys, here's the bright side of the picture, but remember we still have to contend with a shaky, corrupt government in Saigon, with impossible arvn military officers, and with a demoralized and increasingly anti-American civilian population, among other problems—some of which you're not even aware of.' I'm certain that if the President had spoken frankly about some of the problems, all of the positive line he was trying so hard to spoon-feed would've gone down more smoothiy-" The Congressman talked at length about this particular briefing because he believes it symbolizes many of the agonizing difficulties confronting the Johnson Administration as a result of the current Communist winter offensive in Vietnam...
...The General offered as prima facie evidence a series of charts showing kill ratios, weapons-captured ratios, populations-under-government-con trol statistics, and the like...
...One worried Senator complained, "I'm one hawk who is going to have his wings clipped back home if things don't improve in Vietnam?and soon...
...The Administration worked hard and long for six months to convince the American people that the war was going well, that there was no stalemate...
...The Congressman represents a district in a Midwestern industrial city...
...In three weeks, the Vietcong ripped that line to shreds...
...I say it because men with vested interests act to protect those interests...
...The evening ended with Johnson peppering his general with the kinds of questions the Representatives were likely to ask...
...The Congressman recalls that the smooth efficiency of the performance was marred only once by a persistent Congressional dove who pressed Johnson on reasons for the bombing and drew a 20-minute emotional response...
...As he puts it, "the news out of Vietnam has made a lot of people think unclean thoughts...
...that these charts could be made available for speeches to the folks...
...The Midwesterner, who calls himself "a moderate hawk often tempted to fly the coop," was far from satisfied with what he heard...
...A Republican leader told a magazine interviewer that Johnson has been so pummeled by critics he is "like a mean bull determined to charge at anything that moves...
...The star of the session was General Westmoreland, who spoke for 30 minutes without, in the Congressman's words, "once stumbling across a negative factor to include in his report...
...Mistakes perpetuate themselves...
...Westmoreland's message—which, to their annoyance, those present found repeated almost word-for-word during his appearance on Meet the Press a few days later—was that the war was going well, that there is light at the end of the tunnel, and that the South Vietnamese should be capable of taking over the fighting within two years...
...He continued: "I think the President should realize that there is a good possibility Congress will refuse to appropriate additional funds for pacification and rehabilitation in Vietnam...
...But I'm convinced that he's going to keep it up, even intensify it in the weeks ahead...
...The Congressional consensus heard now," he says, "is that Johnson should settle for anything he can get that will keep South Vietnam going...
...His feeling is that the Vietcong offensive has lowered sights all over Capitol Hill...
...What field commander will say: 'My men are doing poorly because the villagers are against them, or because the Vietcong are too strong...
...I do not say this because there are evil men who would keep the truth from the President...
...Fearing a goring, he asked the reporter to delete that sentence...
...He's got the attention of all of us...
...You're asking me to go into the ring with Uncle Ho with one hand tied behind my back," the President declared, "and I'm not going to do it...
...Back on Capitol Hill By Roger Kingsbury Washington Last fall, a Midwestern Congressman who prefers to remain anonymous was invited to the White House along with 50 Democratic colleagues for an off-the-rec-ord briefing on Vietnam...
...The Congressman thumbed through a copy of the Congressional Record to a speech by Senator Wayne Morse...
...Answer: "Without guarantees from Hanoi that the enemy would not take advantage of such a pause, our men in the South would be more vulnerable to sustained ground attack...
...From the beginning, my people have backed Johnson—with most of them wanting to go even further to end the war by using nuclear weapons...
...Good old Morse," the Congressman sighed...
...The big question is its judgment, which is a far more serious matter...
...McNamara is positively gaunt...
...Many in Congress believe the Administration is so deeply committed that it cannot see the woods for the trees...
...Johnson looks 20 years older than he is...
...of Khesanh...
...He claims that "just about everyone in Congress has realized for some time that the President is after a military victory or a negotiated settlement based on our ability to dictate terms...
...And I can tell you, if he escalates dangerously, he's going to have very few supporters left in Congress...
...And this, it seems to me, is all the more reason to do everything possible to negotiate an end to it as quickly as possible...
...He contends, though, that those who have silently acquiesced have done so with the proviso that the Administration succeed in its objectives, or show sound evidence of succeeding before the election campaign begins...
...The members I've talked to are not going along on the next take-off unless they know for sure exactly where it's landing and exactly what's at stake...
...Fhe question on everyone's | mind," the Midwesterner concludes, "is not the Administration's credibility in the Vietnam situation...
...Members are very much aware of the troubles brewing here at home this summer, and we will think twice before investing in Vietnam urban renewal that can be blown up as soon as it's built...
...We had been told that the bombing was vital, that it slowed infiltration and kept nearly half a million men bogged down in the North, working on damage repair...
...He added that Hanoi had turned down an attempt to establish a quid pro quo based on a bombing cessation in exchange for guarantees against a massive Communist build-up in the dmz...
...Vietnam isn't worth American blood.' There have been about five such letters, and I've never had any like them before...
...Remember, Congress bankrolls this war and the taxpayers can clobber us for paying the freight...
...He read from it aloud: "I do not believe the President of the United States has today the means to know the truth of Tonkin...
...He's no longer talking to himself...
...We have learned to live with a lack of credibility...
...It has been a consistently hawkish district," he said...
...I doubt whether the President still believes the bombing is an indispensable military instrument...
...If this happens—and it very well may happen —then the President must make do without the so-called 'Other War.' This, in turn, means we will be involved in a strictly military operation with no semblance of nation-building operations to coincide with the destructive efforts...
...And, believe me, there's going to be an awful lot of tough questions asked up here in the days ahead...
...One Congressman who attended McNamara's farewell ceremonies at the White House, commented: "What's wrong in Vietnam...
...The President suggested Roger Kingsbury, a free-lance journalist, lives in Washington, D.C...
...His constituency is divided between lower- and middle-class Polish and Italians, and largely unemployed Negroes...
Vol. 51 • March 1968 • No. 6
