While the Bullets Whiz

"I know some of you fellows think I get a little irritated at times," President Johnson told aides. "But it's always about the minor things. When the bullets start whizzing around my head, that's when I'm calmest."

Last week the President calmly but measurably stepped up the action in Viet Nam: he sent U.S. jets thundering across the 17th parallel, blasting North Viet Nam targets not on a tit-for-tat reprisal basis but in clear declaration of intent to continue striking north until Hanoi stops sending men and arms south. And at his order, two battalions of U.S. Marines--a total of 3,500 men --prepared to move into South Viet Nam to stiffen defenses around the big airbase at Danang.

Hot Pursuit. Johnson had originally scheduled the air attacks for Feb. 19. But in Viet Nam the weather and the political climate are both uncertain, and coups or clouds kept getting in the way. Finally 19 propeller-driven South Vietnamese Skyraiders and 20 U.S. Air Force Super Sabres took off from Danang and headed for the North Vietnamese torpedo-boat base at Quangkhe, 65 miles north of the 17th parallel. There they relentlessly clobbered berths, repair shops, ammo dumps and supply warehouses with 70 tons of bombs, destroying an estimated 70% of the targets and sinking three to five PT boats in the bargain.

At the same time, the U.S. assembled a force of more than 120 U.S. Super Sabres, Thunderchiefs and B57 Canberra bombers from Bienhoa and Da nang in South Viet Nam, as well as bases in Thailand and possibly the Philippines. Some 30 of the planes peeled off and headed for Quangkhe, while the main force converged on Xombang (appropriately pronounced zom-bang), a jungle staging area and supply dump for infiltrators, ten miles north of the South Viet Nam frontier. More than 120 tons of bombs rained down on Xombang, and U.S. officers later reported "severe damage." All told, one South Vietnamese and five U.S. planes were downed during the raids, but five of the six pilots were rescued (see following story).

There was abundant additional evidence of U.S. determination to increase the cost of what it calls Hanoi's "continuing aggression" against the south. U.S. jets continued to bomb and strafe Viet Cong guerrillas within South Viet Nam--something they had not been doing until two weeks ago. Others flew over Laos regularly in raids aimed at demolishing the jungle roads that the Reds are building to facilitate troop and supply movements. Moreover, U.S. pilots were flying missions under new "rules of engagement" authorizing hot pursuit of enemy jets right into Red China, if necessary. So far, it has not been necessary; though Peking now has supersonic MIG-19s and MIG-21s sitting at airbases in Yunnan province, just over the North Viet Nam border, and on Hainan Island, 150 miles east of the Viet Nam coast, the planes have been inactive.

Embarrassing Outburst. Red response to the toughening U.S. position was relatively mild. In Peking a French newsman asked Communist Chinese officials if they were still thinking of sending troops to Viet Nam. He was told: "This form of intervention is no longer necessary." In Moscow the Communist Parties of 19 nations gathered to talk about repairing their badly chipped bloc, predictably condemned the U.S. for "barbarous" behavior but issued no call for action. Some 2,000 so-called "students"--mostly Asians--unleashed an unbridled attack on the U.S. Embassy, and the Soviet government obviously was embarrassed at the necessity of calling out 600 cops and 500 militiamen to quell the outburst (see THE WORLD).

All the while, President Johnson played it cool, continued quietly about the business of rounding up domestic support for his Viet Nam policies. He invited dozens of previously critical newsmen and Congressmen into the oval office for visits that sometimes ran for three hours or more, persuaded impressive numbers of them that his way is the right one. Sympathetic Congressmen were quietly advised by White House aides that the State Department was only too ready to crank out Viet Nam speeches for them to deliver. In a series of White House receptions for members of Congress and their wives, the President invariably took the lawmakers aside for lengthy and intensive briefings on Viet Nam.

A Chat with Frank. But persuasion was not his only weapon. There was, for example, a widely attested (and publicly denied) conversation with Idaho's Democratic Senator Frank Church, who had been making headlines with his Senate speeches suggesting U.S. withdrawal from Viet Nam.

At one of the White House receptions, Johnson spotted Church, went over to him and said: "Frank, you've been making some speeches that haven't been very helpful." Said Church: "Well, Mr. President, if you read the speech all the way through, it isn't the same as the headlines." Said the President, "The headlines are all I read and all anybody reads. When you were in trouble out in your state, Frank, I used to come out and give you a hand, didn't I?" Answered Church defensively: "Mr. President, what I've been saying isn't much different from what Walter Lippmann has been writing." The President had the last words. "Wal ter Lippmann," he said, "is a fine man. I admire him. Next time you're in trouble out in Idaho, Frank, you ask Walter to come help." Church has since noticeably modified his criticisms of U.S. policy in Viet Nam.

Thus President Johnson managed to diminish the number of domestic political bullets whizzing around his head, and to proceed calmly in increasing the military pressure in Viet Nam.

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