The Plight of The Doves

WHEN wounded, even a dove can express its pain by crying out. As South Dakota Democrat George McGovern faced certain defeat in the Senate on the amendment that he and Oregon Republican Mark Hatfield had sponsored to force the withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Viet Nam by the end of 1971, he assailed his colleagues in brutally personal terms. "Every Senator in this chamber is partly responsible for sending 50,000 young Americans to an early grave," he charged. "This chamber reeks of blood."

Scathingly, McGovern argued that "it does not take any courage at all for a Congressman or a Senator or a President to wrap himself in the flag and say we are staying in Viet Nam--because it is not our blood that is being shed." But, he predicted, the young men who are sent to fight "will some day curse us for our pitiful willingness to let the Executive carry the burden that the Constitution places on us." McGovern claimed that his fellow Senators had contributed to "that human wreckage all across our land--young men without legs or arms or genitals or faces--or hopes."

Before any Senator could reply to McGovern, time had run out for debate on the amendment, which its supporters called an end-the-war measure and its foes termed a lose-the-peace proposal. It was killed by a 55-to-39 vote, as 34 Republicans and 21 Democrats, mostly Southerners, voted nay.

Appeal to Anxieties. A prevailing argument was voiced by Kansas Republican Robert Dole, who dismissed the measure as "a shallow appeal to the emotions and anxieties of good Americans, who are weary of seven years of war." He contended that the Senate ought to express its confidence that President Nixon was moving toward "peace with honor, rather than retreat and defeat." Some antiwar critics of the Administration cast negative votes in the belief that a withdrawal deadline would hinder rather than help peace negotiations. The defeat of the amendment cleared the way for easy Senate passage of a $19.2 billion military procurement authorization bill.

The margin of defeat for the Mc-Govern-Hatfield proposal was neither small enough to constitute a "moral victory," as Hatfield claimed, nor large enough to stand as an impressive endorsement of presidential policy. The willingness of more than a third of the Senators to take the unprecedented step of handing the President a deadline for terminating a shooting war was a clear warning that senatorial patience was precariously thin. Yet the vote also indicated Nixon's skill at maneuvering to take the steam out of each resurgence of opposition to his strategy for seeking peace.

Only four months ago, the antiwar, antimilitary sentiment based in the Senate seemed a formidable challenge to the Administration. Much of the nation was still stunned or suspicious about the U.S.-South Vietnamese invasion of Communist sanctuaries in Cambodia. In that climate, the doves managed to pass the Cooper-Church amendment, banning the use of funds to support similar U.S. operations in Cambodia in the future. But a gentlemanly pro-Administration filibuster delayed passage until U.S. forces had pulled out, making the issue seem academic. Since then, the doves have been beaten on every significant amendment they have offered. On several attempts to limit Administration plans to expand the anti-ballistic missile program, the most they could muster was 47 votes. All of their efforts to cut the Pentagon budget on the floor of the Senate have proved futile. At the same time, opinion polls show that public support of the President's policies remains strong. Temporarily, at least, the doves are dispirited and in flight.

New Optimism. A few days before Vice President Agnew's visit to Phnom-Penh, the U.S. announced an estimated $40 million program of military aid to Premier Lon Nol's government. Described by the State Department as "modest but meaningful," the program actually quadruples the present amount of U.S. aid. Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird, confirming what had long been accomplished fact, defined the use of American airpower in Cambodia well beyond its original limitation of hitting only at supply lines. The U.S. air mission there, he said, was "to destroy supplies and buildups, buildups of personnel as well as supplies."

Based on its latest intelligence reports, the Pentagon is increasingly convinced that the Cambodian invasion is proving to be a smashing success as a limited military venture. TIME Pentagon Correspondent John Mulliken finds a new sense of general optimism among top military leaders, who claim impressive achievements for the operation. It amounted to "the worst setback the Communists have had in 20 years of war in Indochina," contends one Pentagon officer.

After studying both U.S. estimates and captured Communist documents, the Pentagon now puts the North Vietnamese casualties at a minimum of 10,000 dead, compared with 362 U.S. and 818 South Vietnamese dead. If accurate, these figures mean that nearly a fourth of all enemy troops in Cambodia at the time of the invasion were killed. However, they may only demonstrate again that body counting is a highly unreliable exercise in this war. Since the invasion, the Communists have failed to mount any significant attacks in South Viet Nam. U.S. military analysts consider them incapable of doing so now along the Cambodian-South Vietnamese border. They could mount offensives from Laos or North Viet Nam, in the north, but have not done so.

South Vietnamese troops now handle almost all search-and-destroy sweeps. One result has been a sharp curtailment in U.S. casualties, which were down to fewer than 70 deaths last week. At the same time, there is no sanctuary in Cambodia free of U.S. aerial attack or safe from assault by the South Vietnamese. Communist supplies have been so cut that only the equivalent of about four truckloads a day reach troops in Cambodia, the Pentagon believes. This means that although Hanoi has 40,000 men in Cambodia, it can keep only about 800 men, or two battalions, engaged in combat operations at a time.

With the port of Sihanoukville (now called Kompong Som) closed, supplies come primarily along the Ho Chi Minh trail, and this route is under bombardment. In sum, the Pentagon view is that the Cambodia operation was so effective that ''time is now on our side." The U.S. public has, of course, heard such optimistic assessments from its military leaders before--and they have often been wrong. What is undisputed in the battlefield evidence is that since the Cambodian operation. South Viet Nam has enjoyed four of the six to eight months respite from pressure that the President promised as one dividend of his unexpected action.

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