On the Right

New York, March 19—The bold and thus far a successful Communist salient into central Laos requires us to pause and consider in context the great gains we have been making in Vietnam. The paradox is that although, particularly since Tet 1968, we have vastly reduced the fighting strength of the North Vietnamese, nevertheless, there they are, fifty thousand of them, overtaking the critical Plain of Jars, and headed nobody quite knows where.

The point isn’t that American estimates of the depleted strength of the North Vietnamese have been exaggerated. They haven’t—General Giap himself confirmed a few months ago that since the war began, the North Vietnamese have lost on the order of one- half million men. And observers are agreed on the great shortage of Communist military manpower in South Vietnam, particularly with the reduction in the number of Vietcong. It becomes plain, under the circumstances, that the North Vietnamese have decided to press their war against Vietnam via Laos. It is a reversal in the original order of dominos. Let Laos fall, is the apparent reasoning, and perhaps Cambodia goes next. Pressures on Thailand can then mount, and meanwhile a reverse in the attrition in South Vietnam, leading to the return of American troops, and then an intensification of the war against South Vietnam—from the west.

About the Author

William F. Buckley Jr.

William F. Buckley Jr. founded National Review magazine in 1955.

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New York, March 19—The bold and thus far a successful Communist salient into central Laos requires us to pause and consider in context the great gains we have been making in Vietnam. The paradox is that although, particularly since Tet 1968, we have vastly reduced the fighting strength of the North Vietnamese, nevertheless, there they are, fifty thousand of them, overtaking the critical Plain of Jars, and headed nobody quite knows where.

The point isn’t that American estimates of the depleted strength of the North Vietnamese have been exaggerated. They haven’t—General Giap himself confirmed a few months ago that since the war began, the North Vietnamese have lost on the order of one- half million men. And observers are agreed on the great shortage of Communist military manpower in South Vietnam, particularly with the reduction in the number of Vietcong. It becomes plain, under the circumstances, that the North Vietnamese have decided to press their war against Vietnam via Laos. It is a reversal in the original order of dominos. Let Laos fall, is the apparent reasoning, and perhaps Cambodia goes next. Pressures on Thailand can then mount, and meanwhile a reverse in the attrition in South Vietnam, leading to the return of American troops, and then an intensification of the war against South Vietnam—from the west.