From Washington Straight Cato59 Toujours, la Sale Guerr

We are losing another war, this time in Vietnam. More than 10,000 Americans have already been sucked into that steaming land of reed-covered marshes, rice paddies, mapless jungles and bewildering mountains. Nearly every day now there are American names on the casualty lists. When our men first moved into action, the news looked good for a while. The swarming brown termites of the Viet Cong, frightened by the weird sight and. rasping sound of our great whirlybirds, fired a few random rifle shots and scuttled away. But the Viet Cong is led by serious and determined captains. They cured the panic of their followers, devised new tactics, brought in or captured new, heavier weapons; and now the formerly invincible helicopters are becoming targets instead of birds of prey.

In a single engagement early this month, only a handful of miles below Saigon, five helicopters were destroyed and a half-dozen others were badly damaged. Three Americans— “advisers,” they are grotesquely called—were killed, six wounded. Nearly a hundred South Vietnamese paratroops were killed, plus more than a hundred wounded. Much worse: the South Vietnamese, officers as well as men, quit, turned tail and refused to advance on the enemy. U.S. Army Captain Kenneth Good, West Point graduate, married, one child, was killed as he tried vainly to rouse them to a counterattack.

JB

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James Burnham

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We are losing another war, this time in Vietnam. More than 10,000 Americans have already been sucked into that steaming land of reed-covered marshes, rice paddies, mapless jungles and bewildering mountains. Nearly every day now there are American names on the casualty lists. When our men first moved into action, the news looked good for a while. The swarming brown termites of the Viet Cong, frightened by the weird sight and. rasping sound of our great whirlybirds, fired a few random rifle shots and scuttled away. But the Viet Cong is led by serious and determined captains. They cured the panic of their followers, devised new tactics, brought in or captured new, heavier weapons; and now the formerly invincible helicopters are becoming targets instead of birds of prey.

In a single engagement early this month, only a handful of miles below Saigon, five helicopters were destroyed and a half-dozen others were badly damaged. Three Americans— “advisers,” they are grotesquely called—were killed, six wounded. Nearly a hundred South Vietnamese paratroops were killed, plus more than a hundred wounded. Much worse: the South Vietnamese, officers as well as men, quit, turned tail and refused to advance on the enemy. U.S. Army Captain Kenneth Good, West Point graduate, married, one child, was killed as he tried vainly to rouse them to a counterattack.