Language Problem

Once again, like a recurring jungle fever, Viet Nam forced itself to the front of the nation's consciousness. Richard Nixon is certainly "winding down" the war. But he seems unable to extricate the Government completely from the credibility gap dug in Lyndon Johnson's time, and sometimes he deepens the gap himself.

Explanations of the recent bombings of North Viet Nam came out in confused and misleading segments. First the heavy raids in the southern part of the country were billed as "protective reaction" to the downing of a U.S. reconnaissance plane. Then it was acknowledged that they were aimed at enemy supplies. First there was a denial of strikes farther north, with Defense Secretary Melvin Laird explaining that the bomb damage near Hanoi reported by the North Vietnamese may have been caused by their own missiles fired at U.S. planes. Then, when Hanoi put some exploded U.S. Shrike missiles on exhibit, came the Pentagon admission that there had been a diversionary attack by fighter-bombers to support the P.O.W.-rescue attempt.

Laird admitted that he had planned to keep the P.O.W. operation secret but finally announced it to avoid a "credibility problem." He insisted: "This was not a failure." If not, the word has meanings unknown to the laymen and to the servicemen who carried out the mission.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.