Old Myths and New Realities (I)

I doubt that it is the intention of the North Vietnamese to sweep through Laos and then have a go at the next “domino” which would be Thailand. I think it more likely that they are pressing their advantage In Laos to compensate for the stalemate in Vietnam and to demonstrate the futility of Vietnamization. Even if we do succeed in retaining a tenuous foothold In South Vietnam, what will be its use if the North Vietnamese are left free to do pretty much as they please in the rest of Indochina? Events in Laos are showing up Vietnamization for a kind of political Maginot Line--difficult to assault head on, but why bother when you can walk around it? Here again we see the strategic absurdity of our effort to win an Indochinese struggle through a primarily Vietnamese campaign. Even more, we see the extraordinary difficulty and extravagant cost of the ill-advised attempt to implant American influence in this area which any good Metternichian must recognize as somebody else's part of the world. 2. Arthur M. CoX, “Actual Defeat a Vietnam Peril,” Washington Post, March 22, 1970, pp. Bl, B5