On the Right

New York, July 12—We have been permitted to hope that the war in Vietnam is about to take a quick turn for the better. For a period of a week the enemy appeared to have been seized by a quite unusual inertia. Could it be that, finally, the wisdom of retrenchment was dawning on Vietnam military leaders? A few observations:

1) It is unlikely that the Hanoi government has reached any such conclusion. Not because they are spared the great stresses of battle fatigue. It is obviously becoming more and more difficult to sustain the war effort on the scale to which the North Vietnamese have become accustomed, but the North Vietnamese have proved themselves capable of greater and greater effort. But we have working against us not only the crowning disadvantages of fanaticism fueled by the Soviet armory but others of a self-inflicted nature. For instance, the famous article in Foreign Affairs by Clark Clifford.

About the Author

William F. Buckley Jr.

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

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New York, July 12—We have been permitted to hope that the war in Vietnam is about to take a quick turn for the better. For a period of a week the enemy appeared to have been seized by a quite unusual inertia. Could it be that, finally, the wisdom of retrenchment was dawning on Vietnam military leaders? A few observations:

1) It is unlikely that the Hanoi government has reached any such conclusion. Not because they are spared the great stresses of battle fatigue. It is obviously becoming more and more difficult to sustain the war effort on the scale to which the North Vietnamese have become accustomed, but the North Vietnamese have proved themselves capable of greater and greater effort. But we have working against us not only the crowning disadvantages of fanaticism fueled by the Soviet armory but others of a self-inflicted nature. For instance, the famous article in Foreign Affairs by Clark Clifford.