On Two Fronts

Turbulence and bloody conflict embraced the U.S. from two far-flung fronts. One was the old and ugly war in South Viet Nam 6,500 miles away; the other was a raw, new and unexpected rebellion in the Dominican Republic, 600 miles off U.S. shores (see THE HEMISPHERE). On both fronts, President Lyndon Johnson last week acted swiftly with strength of purpose.

A Beneficent Intuition. Fully aware that another Communist island fortress, like Cuba, could sprout in the Caribbean, the President snapped into action at the first sporadic crackles of gunfire in Santo Domingo. Into the waters off the Dominican Republic, he ordered a task force of six ships carrying an assault detachment of 1,800 marines; as a contingency, he alerted Army airborne troops at Fort Bragg, N.C.

By midweek, having absorbed scores of reports, having thoroughly discussed the worsening crisis with his advisers, Johnson gave orders that sent the first detachment of U.S. marines since 1916 into Caribbean combat. Summoning congressional leaders of both parties to the Cabinet Room, he explained that there were more than 2,000 Americans in the Dominican Republic, and there was no other way to guarantee their safety. "Our people have to be protected, and we intend to protect them," he said.

Bluntly, Johnson told the leaders that he was not asking for their authority but that he wanted to tell them about it before they read it in the newspapers. Later, he went on television with a brisk, 21-minute announcement: Some 400 marines had landed on the island; arrangements were being made to evacuate Americans and other nationals who asked to leave. The next day, as the pitch of battle rose, the President sent in more marines, plus paratroopers from Fort Bragg; by week's end reinforcements brought the total of U.S. fighting men to 7,000.

As was to be expected, there was criticism that the President was meddling in a domestic quarrel. Communists and a few suspicious Latin Americans condemned the use of U.S. troops. Complained Red China's press agency, Hsinhua: "The new intervention on the part of the U.S., which came at a moment when U.S. imperialism was wildly extending its aggression in Viet Nam, threw further light on its hideous feature as the international gendarme." The U.S. Communist Party called it a return to "gunboat diplomacy." In Rio de Janeiro, the newspaper Jornal do Brasil said that Johnson's moves "represent the death certificate of the present structure of the inter-American system." But few responsible voices in the U.S. joined the criticism.

In dispatching troops early and swiftly to Santo Domingo, Johnson seemed to be following a correct and beneficent intuition. For by week's end it was clear that the Dominican war had already become a fateful turning point, that the fight to prevent a new Communist presence in the hemisphere would have to be decided then and there.

"Find Viet Cong." The President was equally decisive in his commitment on South Viet Nam, even though his domestic critics continued to raise the decibel count. He announced that a force of 17 Coast Guard cutters would soon be shipped out to take up patrol duty along the coast to help cut off North Vietnamese infiltration. Beyond that, following a visit by Presidential Representative Henry Cabot Lodge with Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies, plans were made to send an 800-man combat force of Australians to Viet Nam. And for the first time, U.S. marines went out in force to attack Viet Cong troops in the jungles near Danang airbase.

On a visit to the Vietnamese battleground last week, tough-talking Marine Commandant Wallace Greene Jr. was delighted with the new marine patrols. "The one job I want them to do is to find Viet Cong and kill them," he told reporters briskly in Saigon. "We got one today, and we're going to get more. Sure, we're suffering casualties, but we're going to be dealing out more. We're fighting a war here now."

As for the reason and rationale behind that war, the President told a White House press conference last week: "America has not changed her essential position. And that purpose is peaceful settlement. That purpose is to resist aggression. That purpose is to avoid a wider war. I say again that I will talk to any government, anywhere, any time, without any conditions; and if any doubt our sincerity, let them test us. Each time we have met with silence or slander or the sound of guns, but just as we will not flag in battle, we will not weary in the search for peace."

Replying to those who object to U.S. bombing in North Viet Nam, Johnson said sharply: "Military targets have been the primary targets that we have attacked. There's no blood in a bridge made of concrete and steel. I do sometimes wonder how some people can be so concerned with our bombing a cold bridge of steel and concrete in North Viet Nam but never open their mouths about a bomb being placed in our embassy in South Viet Nam."

Chinese Weapons. Responding further to those who claim that the conflict is no more than a private civil war, Defense Secretary McNamara told another press conference that aggression by the North Vietnamese "has grown progressively more flagrant and more unconstrained."

No fewer than 39,000 North Vietnamese are fighting in the South, said McNamara, and "the latest step has been the covert infiltration of a regular combat unit of the North Vietnamese army into South Viet Nam. Moreover, it appears that the Viet Cong main-force units, their regular units, are being entirely re-equipped and entirely retrained with the newest Chinese Communist family of weapons." To stem the flow of supplies from the North, U.S. planes had knocked out a total of 24 railroad and highway bridges in the previous three weeks (see THE WORLD).

As Lyndon Johnson summed up at his press conference: "Wherever we have stood firm, aggression has been halted, peace has been restored and liberty has been maintained."

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