"Some Tears & Some Blood"

For the fourth time in half a century, the U.S. is at war. If there has been any doubt about the Viet Nam conflict's fitting that definition, it was surely dispelled last week for anyone who understood the meaning of events.

For months the war has been developing at a gradual pace. Seeking to limit it, the U.S. sent--and is still sending--American men and materiel into Viet Nam on a piecemeal basis, always hoping that the next unit would be the last one necessary. Tight restrictions on U.S. or South Vietnamese bombing raids against Hanoi's industrial complex have been maintained. At all times, President Johnson has held himself open to what he described last April in his Johns Hopkins University speech as "unconditional discussions" leading toward peace.

"Serious Decisions." All to no avail. Last week the President said somberly to associates: "I've tried delaying and limiting the bombings. But how can I continue to do that? I can't. Thirteen times we've tried various approaches and proposals to get the Communists to the bargaining table--without result. It is going to take some tears and some blood."

During the week, the Administration carefully fed out, bit by bit, enough information to give the people of the U.S. a sharper picture of the situation's seriousness. At a news conference, the President warned: "Heavy infiltration of North Vietnamese forces has created new dangers and difficulties in South Viet Nam. Increased aggression from the North may require an increased American response on the ground ... It is quite possible that new and serious decisions will be necessary in the future."

Reserves & Draftees. Before settling on the specifics of those new decisions, the President said, he will await a report from Defense Secretary Robert McNamara; Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., the U.S.'s Ambassador-designate to South Viet Nam; and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Earle Wheeler.

The three left last week on an inspection and consultation trip to Saigon, where they conferred with Premier Nguyen Cao Ky and Chief of State Nguyen Van Thieu, and will not return to Washington until this week. Before he left Washington, McNamara confirmed that the upcoming decisions might include "calling up Reserve and Guard forces, extending the tours of duty of personnel presently in the forces, and increasing the draft calls."

The U.S. has 72,000 men in South Viet Nam, including a contingent of some 3,900 troops of the historic 1st Infantry Division ("the Big Red One") that landed last week. On the way from Fort Campbell, Ky., was a 4,000-man brigade of the 101st Airborne Division. Also ticketed for Viet Nam is the Army's recently created 1st Cavalry Air Mobile Division now in training at Fort Benning, Ga. By the end of this year, the U.S. will almost certainly have nearly 200,000 men in Viet Nam, and if the Communists insist on stepping up their own effort, the U.S. troop total may well come to 400,000 by next summer.

In these, as in many other ways, the U.S. displayed its determination to carry on a war in Viet Nam until a satisfactory settlement is won.* Items:

> The Army last week changed its rule for service. Formerly, Army regulars in other overseas commands--most particularly Europe--returned to the U.S. for a two-year tour of duty before they could be sent to Viet Nam; henceforth, such men can be sent there after only 60 days of home leave. Previously, men who had served a tour in Viet Nam were sent home unless they volunteered to stay on; now the Army may keep them there whether they volunteer or not.

> Restrictions were imposed on newsmen. No longer will day-by-day casualty figures be given out, neither will U.S. units engaged in battle be identified. Troop movements will not be announced unless it becomes clear that the Communists are already well aware of them. The new rules are the same as those put into effect during the Korean War, with the difference that the censorship is to be voluntary rather than imposed. Correspondents will theoretically still be free to dig up their own facts and figures. But it seemed perfectly plain that anyone who dug up a compromising fact or figure would be banned from the combat area.

> The U.S. is spending $6.5 million a month on logistics; within a year that figure will go up to $20 million. The Navy has informed American private shipping interests that it needs 54 new cargo and transport vessels immediately. The first contingent of the Army's new 1,800-man 1st Logistical Command has already landed in Viet Nam; the unit will eventually take over supply and maintenance functions now scattered among the services. Most important of all, eight battalions of Army engineers and four battalions of Seabees are scheduled to arrive in Viet Nam by September to help in the construction, already under way, of a huge new port facility at Cam Ranh Bay on South Viet Nam's east coast, and of seven new jet airfields.

In the Viet Nam war, a major U.S. problem has been to convince the Communist enemy that America is willing to make whatever sacrifice may be required. The moves made and indicated by the U.S. last week should be persuasive--if that kind of persuasion is ever to be effective.

* While on a "private" trip to Moscow last week, veteran cold-war Diplomat Averell Harriman had a three-hour conversation with Soviet Premier Aleksei Kosygin, emerged saying that the session had produced "significant information." But in Washington, after receiving Harriman's cabled report, White House and State Department spokesmen warned against any hope that Harriman's talk with Kosygin might lead to a negotiated peace in Viet Nam.

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