Word: nam
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Thompson's perspective has brought him alternately in and out of phase with the prevailing U.S. strategies in Viet Nam. He still subscribes to the domino theory that a Communist success in Viet Nam would jeopardize other shaky governments in Southeast Asia and even as far away as Latin America. He approved Kennedy's commitment of U.S. advisers and his accent on unconventional Special Forces. He advised the late South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem to undertake a program of protected "strategic hamlets," but the program flopped when Diem moved too quickly, ignoring Thompson's warning...
...President Nixon's request, Thompson recently spent five weeks touring Viet Nam. He found some of the improvements since 1968 to be "astounding." Though the Tet offensive was a Communist psychological victory, he contends, it was militarily "suicidal." "The thing that surprised me more than anything else was the extent to which the government has regained control in the countryside," he said last week. "The V.C.'s population base has been eroded. The population is gradually losing confidence in the ability of the Viet Cong to win. It is coming in toward the government...
Good Reasons. The Nixon Administration is anxious to draw China out of its "angry, alienated shell," as Under Secretary of State Elliot Richardson put it recently. The U.S. fully realizes that it cannot effect any lasting solutions in Viet Nam and Southeast Asia without at least some cooperation from China. Also, Washington worries that a lack of contact between China and the U.S. might embolden the Russians to blackmail or attack China. In view of Moscow's superior military strength, an American show of neutrality would only benefit the Russians; yet because of the communications void between Peking...
...missiles are customarily tucked into budgets for "medium industry" and "scientific research." Additional allocations may well not be listed at all. Western analysts reckon that the true Soviet defense bill will come to about $60 billion in U.S. terms, or just about what the Pentagon spends now, excluding Viet Nam costs. Some speculate that, because of tension with China, the Soviets are, in fact, nudging ahead of the U.S. in defense spending as American outlays decline. In any case, judging from the way officials boasted at the Supreme Soviet about more cost-effective defense management techniques and benefits from increased...
...First teach-ins and draft-card burnings dramatize student reaction to Viet Nam...