The Week

In Paris the talks go on, their unreality heightened by the chaos of a general strike, the dissolution of parliament, de Gaulle’s desperate bid, and the seeming incommunicability of the aims of Hanoi and Washington. Of course. On a different level, that incommunicability of aims is a faithful reflection of the non-negotiability of the military positions in Vietnam. Talk has become another weapon-system, is recognized as such by both sides, and has therefore lost its pristine propaganda value. No one, not even they, described the Paris talks as the “last best hope” for peace in Vietnam, or charges the negotiators with portentous burdens affecting the future of mankind, tra-la, tra-la-la. Paris is the Panmunjom of Vietnam, and the talks will continue until one side or the other wearies of the effort to extend or defend its commitments in the field.

It was early Wednesday afternoon before it became apparent that Dr. Max Rafferty had pulled off the impossible and beaten out Senator Thomas Kuchel for the Republican primary nomination in California. Rafferty had started behind. The big money he had hoped for wasn’t forthcoming and, biggest hurdle of all, Governor Reagan, true to the 11th Commandment—thou shalt not speak ill of any member of your own party—had not taken sides, strong as the temptation to do so must have been. Kuchel, of course, had refused to support Barry Goldwater and George Murphy in 1964 and Ronald Reagan himself in 1966. In the final weeks the polls showed Kuchel leading, his position reinforced by other polls that indicated he would win handily over Democratic nominee Alan Cranston while Rafferty would trail in a race against Cranston. But when the voting was over Rafferty had won, knocking out the Minority Whip of the Senate. What this indicates is that the Republican Party in California is now solidly conservative, that the wins of Murphy and Reagan were not flukes, but symbols of a swing toward the responsible Right. And what is true in California appears—as we survey the shambles in the liberal wing of the party—to be increasingly true of the GOP everywhere; and maybe of the nation.

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In Paris the talks go on, their unreality heightened by the chaos of a general strike, the dissolution of parliament, de Gaulle’s desperate bid, and the seeming incommunicability of the aims of Hanoi and Washington. Of course. On a different level, that incommunicability of aims is a faithful reflection of the non-negotiability of the military positions in Vietnam. Talk has become another weapon-system, is recognized as such by both sides, and has therefore lost its pristine propaganda value. No one, not even they, described the Paris talks as the “last best hope” for peace in Vietnam, or charges the negotiators with portentous burdens affecting the future of mankind, tra-la, tra-la-la. Paris is the Panmunjom of Vietnam, and the talks will continue until one side or the other wearies of the effort to extend or defend its commitments in the field.

It was early Wednesday afternoon before it became apparent that Dr. Max Rafferty had pulled off the impossible and beaten out Senator Thomas Kuchel for the Republican primary nomination in California. Rafferty had started behind. The big money he had hoped for wasn’t forthcoming and, biggest hurdle of all, Governor Reagan, true to the 11th Commandment—thou shalt not speak ill of any member of your own party—had not taken sides, strong as the temptation to do so must have been. Kuchel, of course, had refused to support Barry Goldwater and George Murphy in 1964 and Ronald Reagan himself in 1966. In the final weeks the polls showed Kuchel leading, his position reinforced by other polls that indicated he would win handily over Democratic nominee Alan Cranston while Rafferty would trail in a race against Cranston. But when the voting was over Rafferty had won, knocking out the Minority Whip of the Senate. What this indicates is that the Republican Party in California is now solidly conservative, that the wins of Murphy and Reagan were not flukes, but symbols of a swing toward the responsible Right. And what is true in California appears—as we survey the shambles in the liberal wing of the party—to be increasingly true of the GOP everywhere; and maybe of the nation.