Word: laird
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...system. Even while concentrating on negotiations at the peace table in Paris, he continued to prosecute the war in Viet Nam at a cautious but undiminished pace. The task of defending those decisions, however tentative they remain, has largely been handled by Nixon's Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird, who has emerged as the Administration's principal confronter. Last week a good part of Laird's task was taken over by Secretary of State William P. Rogers, a man whom Nixon has described as "the best negotiator in the world...
...would be difficult to find two men more diverse in their approach. Laird, a kinetic, combative Midwesterner, testified before the Senate's Foreign Relations subcommittee on disarmament the week after he returned from his first tour of Viet Nam as Defense Secretary. As an eight-term Congressman from Wisconsin, he was used to committee hearings, and he knew how to make his point in them. During vigorous questioning, he stood his ground firmly. Rogers, a former Attorney General and ever the coolly prepared advocate, showed a reasoned, refreshingly pliant approach to questions that Laird handled with brusque assurance...
...probably differ more in style than in substance. Yet to the extent that there are two divergent bodies of opinion within Nixon's inner circle-at least on Viet Nam and ABM systems-Laird and Rogers probably exemplify them. The President, still playing for time, has so far kept to a cautious middle course. But sooner or later he may have to choose one tack over the other...
...Faiths. The Secretary of State was careful not to contradict Laird flatly, even though his testimony was laced with optimism. Whereas Laird gloomily doubted that U.S. troops could soon leave South Viet Nam (but added qualifiers to his doubts), Rogers wanted them back "as quickly as possible." Moreover, said Rogers, any settlement that required the U.S. to stay on in Viet Nam permanently-like that in Korea-would be "not desirable." The conditions for peace that Rogers outlined were substantially unchanged from those of the Johnson Administration. However, he acknowledged that Saigon's present attitude would be a "problem...
Whatever route the President elects, he will soon be confronted with revoking Laird's statement that 1969 is too early to contemplate any U.S. troop reductions. It should not be too difficult for Nixon to manage. By ordering the withdrawal of a relatively modest 15,000 combat troops plus their 25,000 support troops in the latter half of 1969, Nixon could manage to bring home 40,000 men. If nothing else, such a decision would at least buy him a concession from Hanoi (if the withdrawal were negotiated) and certainly, as the South Vietnamese watched the first layer...