For Tricks That Are Vain

Junketing about North Korea last week, Chinese Premier Chou En-lai inspected a fertilizer factory, improvised a five-minute jig for North Korean Premier Kim II Sung, and announced that the horde of "Chinese People's volunteers" who volunteered into the Korean war in 1950 would volunteer themselves back to China again by the end of the year. Of course, he continued, "this confronts the U.S. with an inescapable obligation to similarly withdraw."

The move was hardly serpent-subtle, but it fitted present Communist postures and predicaments. As propaganda, it obscured the fact that the U.S. has long since withdrawn all but two divisions. As a practical matter, the 350,000 Chinese troops in North Korea are a drain on its shaky economy, and back in China they can flesh out the none too plentiful labor force, still act as reserves ready to pour back across the border if necessary. Weapons kept by the U.S. in South Korea capable of delivering nuclear warheads rankle Peking and Moscow, and while Chou was ranting last week, Russia chimed in with a proposal to establish a "nuclear-free zone" prohibiting atomic weapons in the Korean peninsula.

Then, leaving Kim with the assurance that if he ever wants anything from across the Yalu he need only whistle. Chou packed his trained doves and headed back to Peking.

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