Pygmies All

Saying nyet for perhaps the thousandth time, Moscow once again disappointed the nonaligned and Western statesmen who cling to the chimerical notion that Russia would help mediate a peace in Viet Nam.

After a four-day series of talks last week with Kremlin officials aimed at promoting a "conference of all governments concerned," British Foreign Secretary Michael Stewart finally conceded: "The present Soviet attitude does not at present seem to open a door." The Russian position, said Stewart, is that it has no authority to intervene.

That nicety has not hindered the Russians' flow of war supplies to Hanoi. Indeed, far from seeking peace in Viet Nam, Moscow has actually stepped up military aid to Hanoi and, according to Asian sources at the United Nations, has even knuckled under to Peking's arrogant demand that Russia pay tribute in precious U.S. dollars for the privilege of shipping its materiel on Chinese railroads. Far from seeking an end to the war, the Russians--as the pro-Soviet Polish press reported last week--are furious at the Chinese for refusing to cooperate with Moscow "and concert policy in the face of imperialist aggression" in Viet Nam.

Weekly Contact. There were no complaints of noncooperation between Hanoi and Peking. The Chinese are pouring an ever-rising flood of arms and military technicians into North Viet Nam, thus bulwarking Hanoi's armor-plated resistance to negotiations. In an ironic sequel to the recent ruckus over Washington's supposed rejection of "peace feelers" from Hanoi, the Administration let it be known last week that it had been making its own overtures to the North Vietnamese government for months. Through Communist delegations at the U.N., as Ambassador Arthur Goldberg explained it, the U.S. had tried to plumb Hanoi's willingness to "enter into an equitable arrangement for a cease-fire that would call for a diminution of military activity on both sides."

Though Washington indicated its willingness to suspend bombing raids on the North, Hanoi did not even bother to reject the American feelers. Nor could there be any doubt that the Communists had got the message. "We are in touch with the other side regularly every week," said Secretary of State Dean Rusk.

"Take Care." While Hanoi remained mum, Peking last week weighed in with the standard diatribe. Hsinhua, the Red Chinese press agency, jeered that U.S. offers to talk were no more than "a form of Washington's war blackmail," depicting its overtures as "a painstaking effort to present the U.S. aggressors as angels of peace."

The "realities," to use the peace seekers' current in-word, are clear enough. Until Hanoi and Peking are convinced that the U.S. is winning the war, they will continue to turn a deaf ear to peace talks. But as Dean Rusk warned heatedly in Washington and St. Louis last week: "There will be no gathering together after World War III. There won't be enough left. Forget it. The necessity is that we remember these lessons now--build a decent world order now, in order to prevent World

War III." Asked Rusk: "How do you find peace? That, ladies and gentlemen, is the question that makes pygmies of all of us. If anyone thinks he has the answer--take care, take care."

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