Viet civilians or GI'sWho should be protected?
No matter what one's personal view of the war in Vietnam is, the following news item which came across the Kansan's United Press International teletype wire has some very serious connotations and contains some food for thought.
The story was this:
WASHINGTON - The Air Force chief of staff has told a secret Senate committee session that North Vietnam was able to rebuild about 75 per cent of its bomb damage within five months after the total halt to U.S. bombing.
Gen. John P. McConnell made the estimate in April 16 testimony just released by the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Practically everything in North Vietnam has been rebuilt," McConnell said. "All the highways, the bridges, the trans-shipment points that were destroyed, and, what little industry they have, which is not much.
Former President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered a partial bombing halt March 31, 1968, and a total bombing halt last Oct. 31 as an inducement to get the current peace talks started.
"Supplies now enter North Vietnam without any difficulty and are brought right down to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) without any difficulty, and the tonnages are extremely high.
"We are not allowed to bomb. They have free rein to come in. They moved their supplies from the north right down to positions north of the DMZ" McConnell said.
"They have moved their supplies from the North to points just across the border between Laos and South Vietnam, so therefore they have them much closer.
"So I would say that the troops are in more jeopardy than they would have been had the supplies been under attack all the way back up to the Chinese border and Haiphong, or at least to 19 degrees north, as it was before the bombing halt."
People have mixed emotions about the bombing of North Vietnam.
Many approve and condone it because of the decreased pressure it gives U.S. ground units in controlling the flow of Communist supplies across the DMZ.
Many, however, violently disapprove of it because of humanitarian reasons, namely the unavoidable killing of some of the civilian population during bombing raids on military targets.
Lyndon Johnson called off the bombing because of pressure from demonstrators at home who wanted the bombing stopped.
But it would seem that a priority must eventually be determined and a line of demarcation drawn.
While Johnson called a halt to the bombing in order to get the peace talks started on a positive course (which it evidently did not) and to quell ill feelings at home, his decision had a very opposite effect on the military personnel fighting in Vietnam. It made their job more difficult.
The American people, or at least the outspoken ones among them, wanted two things accomplished which completely negated each other.
On the one hand, they wanted the war ended, either by victory or by pulling out—the latter being seemingly out of the question as far as the U.S. government was concerned.
On the other hand, they wanted the bombing stopped because North Vietnamese civilians were being killed by bombs which sometimes unavoidably missed their targets.
The U.S. government finally gave-in to the latter group. This may have helped the North Vietnamese civilian population escape injury or death, but it certainly did not help the friends and loved ones of the people who prevailed. Instead of being able to stop those supplies at their places of origin in the North, the U.S. troops had to stop them after they reached the hands of the Viet Cong.
In war, priorities have to be set. Decisions must be made as to who should be protected. Unfortunately, these decisions cannot be made without hurting one side.
Compassion for one's fellow man, while highly desirable, is a funny thing. It grows and grows until it grows so strong that one ends up hurting himself.
This has happened in Vietnam.
- Quotes -
NEW YORK (UPI)—The Rev. Billy Graham predicting the second coming of Christ;
"I've gotten in the habit of wondering when I go to bed if He's going to come during the night. When I wake up in the morning I wonder if He's coming that day."
BOSTON (UPI)—Former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara talking about defense spending:
"Congress has bought defense the way women buy perfume. If it costs more, they conclude it must be better."
JACKSON, Miss—Bishop Stephen Spottswood, chairman of the board of directors of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, commenting on the failure of the Nixon administration to propose new civil rights measures:
"The encounters with sheriffs, the days in jail, the cracks of billy clubs and the sickening sigh of the death bullets may have been in vain."
WASHINGTON—Former Surgeon General Luther L. Terry, telling a hearing of the Federal Trade Commission, that strict controls or elimination of cigarette advertising is needed:
"Let us try to prevent one million youths from annually taking up cigarette smoking by warning them of the hazards from the very day they view their first cigarette commercial."
SAIGON — Lt. Col. Andrew Marquis describing fighting at Ben Het in the Central Highlands: "The enemy is paying a tremendous price."
"I will not hesitate to ask the government to call in reservists ...to fill defense requirements and to train for the possibility of a new war."
TEL AVIV — Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan addressing frontier settlers;
4 KANSAN Jly. 11 1969
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