Nixon's War

IT IS FAIRLY clear by now that the Nixon Administration does not intend to change U.S. policy in Vietnam. After two months of power, Nixon has given no indication of any shift away from the Johnson Administration's insistence on dictating South Vietnam's future, and the American negotiators in Paris continue to behave as though there were any legitimate claims in Vietnam about which to negotiate. Meanwhile U.S. and Vietnamese casualties continue to rise. Secretary Laird makes bland predictions about keeping half a million men in Vietnam for "at least" two years, and there are ominous rumors of a resumption of the air war against North Vietnam.

The most disurbing development of all has been Nixon's failure to curtail the quiet intensification of the war in the South which followed the bombing halt last fall. The number of U.S.-initiated ground contacts with enemy forces doubled between November and February, and the New York Times reported several days ago that this trend appears to be continuing. According to no less an authority than Averell Harriman, the recent Viet Cong "offensive" is in reality a response to this stepping up of the ground war by American forces.

This pattern of quietly escalating in Vietnam while talking peace in Washington has become too familiar. No one should stand for it any more. Vietnam has become Nixon's war, and the immunity from criticism which is traditionally accorded a new President should end. Senator Kennedy was wrong in urging his fellow Democrats to lay off the Administration's handling of the war for a little longer. The Johnson-Nixon transition was so smooth because it was really no transition at all: the faces have changed, but the policies remain the same.