Vol. 4, No. 6 March 11, 1966
"A MASSIVE LAND WAR ON THE CONTINENT OF ASIA"
In a news conference in Washington March 2, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara revealed that the United States now has 215,000 troops in south Vietnam, an increase of 10,000 over the previous figure. In addition, he said, another 20,000 troops are en route, bringing the total force to 245,000 as of the moment.
The new increase gave fresh substance to the oft-repeated -~and never denied -- rumors that the eventual goal is to put 400,000 to 600,000 U.S. troops into the war. Some estimates have even put the figure higher than that.
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Besides announcing the latest big escalation decided upon by the White House, McNamara argued heatedly against all the critics of Johnson's war policy. He was particularly infuriated over questioning as to the capacity of the United States to keep up such a flow of troops without emergency moves at home.
The most ominous aspect of McNamara's announcement was its timing. It comes directly on the heels of the televised hearings of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee which raised the most serious doubts as to the wisdom of escalating the war in Vietnam -- wisdon, of course; from the capitalist point of view.
The hearings made a deep impact on the American public, who have also been viewing on their TV screens close-ups of the war in Vietnam. Mail to Congress in opposition to the war has risen to’new highs.
McNamara's announcement likewise came at the. same ‘ime as reports that U. S. casualties in Vietnam are much worse. than in 1965, recently taking another jump.
Thus McNamara's declarations at. his press conférence gave the impression of a White House answer to the rising antiwar sentiment among the American people. Whether they like it or not, Johnson has decided, to take a major plunge in Southeast.Asia. | -
. This is precisely how the very influential ‘New York Tines interpreted the move. In an editorial of the kind it reserves for big turns or highly important events, the Times said March 6, as if it could scarcely believe it: "...there can no longer be much doubt that the United States is. becoming committed to precisely what its © civilian and military. leaders have almost unanimously wanted to avoid: a massive land war on the continent. of Asia.
To drive the point home, the Times declared that no matter what the eventual number of U.S. troops in Vietnam may be, "the fact is that already, as of today, ‘we are there"..." This was the title placed on the editorial, "We Are There.
The Dimes had a number of ‘proposals to ‘make -on how to back out of this situation. All of them, boiling down to modes of getting negotiations. going, can be dismissed. The real problem is how to get the U.S. to withdraw its. troops. Anything less means maintaining the. threat of a nuclear conflict. a -
"Other ‘forces than those represented by the bourgeois opposi—" tion to Johnson's war policy are required to solve that problem. ~ More and more the American people will find themselves faced with perhaps the most crucial question in all of history. Can they rise to the need of the hour. and put a stop to this madness? The answer foreshadowed by the rise of the antiwar movement is a resounding YES. Johnson and the warmongering coterie he has assembled will shortly begin to hear this in tones that even the deafest among them will be able to hear.