Word: generalship
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...early to say whether this strategy, given the situation, was right or wrong, but the big question is still why, with more than half a million well-trained troops, abundant supplies and the greatest concentration of firepower in history, Westmoreland was not able to achieve greater success. His generalship can ultimately be assessed only by the requests and equivocations that for now are sealed in Pentagon filing cabinets. Strategy aside, however, his clearest single failure was not to have built the South Vietnamese army into a respectable fighting force. His deputy and possible successor, General Creighton ("Abe") Abrams...
Undoubtedly, history's judgment of Westmoreland's generalship will depend in large measure on the outcome of the expected Khe Sanh battle. Some critics feel that defending the remote outpost is a foolish gamble that heavily favors the Communists. "Why fight at Khe Sanh at all?" asks French General André Beaufre, who served for five years in Indo-China. "Logistically, the fight favors the North Vietnamese. You have allowed them once again to choose the time and place of battle...
Westmoreland has a worthy antagonist. Defense Minister Vo Nguyen Giap, victor over the French at Dienbienphu, is reliably reported to be personally directing the campaign against Khe Sanh. The Communist planning so far has all the earmarks of Giap's generalship: a combination of caution, feinting, meticulous preparation, and enormous concentrations of firepower and manpower. Giap's precise strategic aim at Khe Sanh is less clear. A North Vietnamese lieutenant who defected reported that Hanoi's goal was to wipe out U.S. forces in Viet Nam's northern provinces in order to provide a bargaining advantage...
Political infighting over the secretary generalship has been ugly and high-pressured, often resorting to strong-arm political threats. Just last Thursday one of Ritter's partisans in the secretariat, Luis Raul Betances, a Dominican, was fired after another angry Dominican delegates reported that Raul promised to have him removed if he did not change his vote from Falcon to Ritter...
...whatever the grubby details of the present fight over the secretary generalship, the fact remains that the Central American and Carribean nations for the first time have discovered strength in unity. For these countries, the fight for Ritter's candidacy has been primarily a nose-thumbing exercise at the United States, and at the big boys in South America who have always tended to look down on them because of the "special relationship" which they hold with the U.S. Also, South Americans consider South Americans to be less "pure" racially because of their large Indian population...