Quiet No More

When the 1954 Geneva Conference divided Viet Nam in two, it established a demilitarized buffer zone between the Communist North and anti-Communist South. The zone is six miles wide. It roughly follows the 17th parallel from the mountainous Laotian border in the west through thickly jungled foothills to the fertile paddies along the coast. For twelve years, it was the quietest place in all of Viet Nam.

Last week the peace was broken. On four separate days, American warplanes swooped in to bomb the demilitarized zone--and the antiaircraft barrage that greeted them did not come from Communist carbines and pistols. The whole western section of the DMZ was alive with North Vietnamese troops, elements of Ho Chi Minn's ill-fated 324th Division, which had been driven out of South Viet Nam last month by the U.S. Marines' Operation Hastings. Intelligence reports indicated that the 324th was no stranger to the area; rather than risk running the gauntlet of air reconnaissance and allied strongpoints along the Ho Chi Minh trail, the division had actually infiltrated into the South two months ago, moving straight across the forbidden DMZ.

Communist protests against the bombing were significantly muffled. Even North Viet Nam contented itself with accusing the U.S. of "trampling underfoot" the Geneva accords. But Canada, which, together with India and Poland, is charged with maintaining the International Control Commission that supposedly keeps Viet Nam at peace, immediately pressed for an investigation and steps to clear the DMZ of all military activity.

In Washington, Secretary of State Dean Rusk backed the Canadians all the way. "We would be glad to see the I.C.C. move to clear the demilitarized zone of all military action," he told a press conference. Although Rusk did not deny that the bombing could be considered further escalation of the war, he pointed out to reporters that it was the North Vietnamese government that had originally militarized the zone by sending in troops. "The chronology of escalation is based on the fact that they keep coming," he said. "What we would prefer is that they send some negotiators to Geneva. What we want are some people in striped pants, not people in uniform."

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