Most congressmen got the message over the Easter recess: what their constituents want is “Out Now” from Indochina. Sen. Barry Goldwater, despite this sentiment, says he’ll support Gerald Ford on further aid for South Vietnam but not for Cambodia, because he doesn’t believe the U.S. has a commitment there. Other consistent Administration supporters, Republican Senators Robert Griffin, the Minority Leader, Dewey Bartlett (Okla.), and James McClure (Idaho) agree with the Goldwater position. . . . In the House, conservative Democratic Rep. Walter Flowers (Ala.) blames the switch in sentiment on the Kissinger detente policy. “They [his constituents] don’t have any feeling of guilt,” he says. “They say we’re arm in arm with the big Communists in Russia and China but fighting the little Communists in Indochina tooth and nail. I can’t justify any more military aid.” . . . Dean Rusk, Lyndon Johnson’s Secretary of State, still believes in domino theory. What it is, he says, “is a euphemism for something else—the doctrine of world revolution—and I don’t know why we want to conceal that.” . . . Meanwhile estimates of what a Communist takeover in South Vietnam would mean in terms of Hué-style executions and murders go all the way from 150,000 (Evans & Novak, April 9) to a possible one million (retired General Edward Lansdale). . . . In Phnom Penh, the U.S. Embassy has captured Khmer Rouge documents reporting the mass execution of 700 civilians and surrendered soldiers in Battambang Province in the fighting last year.
The hard Left showing signs of new life in the wake of the heady news from Indochina. One group of peaceniks headed by Cora Weiss (Women Strike for Peace), Grace Paley (the Sarah Lawrence professor), and Rep. Ned Pattison (D., N.Y.) took off for Paris last week to confer with North Vietnamese and
Comments