Chimeras in Viet Nam

Bothered by all the moral, legalistic and unrealistic arguments over Viet Nam, Military Historian S.L.A. Marshall offers some blunt battlefield advice in the current New Leader. "Long service with the military," admits retired Brigadier General Marshall, "colors my own view." It also "nourishes the suspicion that peace is so important that its safeguarding should not be entrusted exclusively to the judgment of civilians."

One judgment he questions in particular is the bland statement by Defense Secretary McNamara that U.S. forces cannot be protected in Viet Nam against enemy sneak attack. "It is a self-imposed jeopardy," Marshall writes. "In operations of war, if you do not have security, you do not have anything. The sending of enough field forces to cover our own installations was the one move that might have initiated a revival of confidence. Amid doubt all around, it would have been an earnest of the American intention to see the show through. There is always time for such moves: the time is when certain gain outweighs the calculated risk."

Marshall believes that the U.S. has been much too cautious in Viet Nam for fear of Chinese Communist intervention. The Chinese, he feels sure, are unlikely to enter the war. "Chinese and Communist Vietnamese interests are by no means identical." Besides, there are "insuperable logistic difficulties." The distance from the Chinese to the South Vietnamese border is 650 miles, and the route lies over rugged terrain through a narrow coastal strip that can be easily attacked from sea or air. Moreover, Chinese transport remains as shoddy as it was during the Korean War. Whenever Chinese troops moved more than 450 miles beyond their supply lines at the Yalu, they bogged down.

"However intransigent," concludes Marshall, "the men of Peking are not reckless. They look for the soft touches and hit only when opportunity yawns wide. For these reasons, all the talk about blundering into another Korea-type war in Southeast Asia seems to me as idle as is the fear behind it. Palpable risks and dangers are present in such number that if those who make policy recoil from chimeras, they will forfeit what chance remains to help South Viet Nam save herself."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.