Again the War

For President Nixon, the attack by North Viet Nam on the South--long predicted but still a shock when it came with full force--is a fearful recrudescence. Once again the skies of Southeast Asia are full of U.S. planes raining bombs, once again TV screens are filled with images of frightened refugees fleeing the shells and bullets of both sides.

The resumption of full-scale warfare (see THE WORLD) poses new hazards for the President's reelection. Having spent the last several years assuring the public that his government would Vietnamize the war and withdraw, Nixon felt obliged to renew the air war against the North Vietnamese to contain their attack. Though the initial stage of the Communist thrust was a tactical success, so far the South Vietnamese have held fairly firm. If they continue to do so, Vietnamization will be proved and Nixon's policy vindicated--to his benefit in November.

But if they do not, there looms the shadow of the dilemma that undid Johnson in 1968: Nixon cannot defeat the invasion by intensifying the ground war, yet he dare not wholly retreat and thus recant on his pledges. So, once more, the next President of the U.S. may owe his job to events in a tiny, alien land 10,000 miles from Washington.

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