■ About Vietnam: In the week of the fall 56 per cent of the American people still felt confidence in the way Henry Kissinger was handling his job, as against 25 per cent who disapproved (Gallup). . . . Defense Secretary James
Schlesinger admitted he had misjudged American public opinion when it came to supporting renewed U.S. military bombings of North Vietnam if Hanoi violated the Peace Accords. “Public opinion,” he said, “was not that volatile.” . . . Sen. Adlai Stevenson III, a dove, zeroed in on the Administration’s policy of detente as the villain in the piece. Detente, he said, “has been highly profitable for the Soviet Union so far and highly expensive for the United States. We have given up our wheat, our credits, also our strategic superiority, with nothing as yet gained in Indochina or elsewhere.” . . . Another longtime dove, Sen. Walter Mondale, says he will vote against the perennial Mike Mansfield efforts to cut U.S. troop commitments in Western Europe. “It’s very important,” he said, “not to signal to the Russians and others that we’re giving up. The Congress decided against the war in Vietnam. We did not vote to become an isolationist country.” . . . What Moscow intends next could be guessed from a Tass dispatch May 2 hailing the fall of Saigon. “Sooner or later,” it said, “Chile’s right wing junta, the militarist Israeli leadership, and racist South Africa will join the overthrown Saigon regime on the rubbish dump of history.” . . . And North Korean dictator Kim II Sung made his first visit to Peking in 14 years, leading to alarmed speculation in the South that he might be asking Red China’s support for renewed hostilities there.
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