Word: westmorelands
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...President's decision, arrived at after several days of anxious contemplation, was a typically Johnsonian compromise. There will be more American troops in Viet Nam at the end of this year than originally scheduled, but not so many as General Westmoreland wanted...
There are now 465,000 U.S. service men there, and another 25,000 have long since been tagged to go. With allowances for anticipated casualties, that would have given Westmoreland a total force of 480,000 troops by Jan. 1 . Now the timetable has been accelerated. The 480,000 mark will be reached by mid-October, 2½ months ahead of schedule...
...What Westmoreland was asking for was three additional divisions, totaling 120,000 men, by mid-1968. He apparently is only going to get 70,000 to 80,000 men - in "dribs and drabs," as one U.S. officer put it - over the next 18 months. Thus the maximum U.S. strength in Viet Nam is now visualized as around 550,000 men by the end of next year, if necessary - and L.B.J. of course continues to hope the maximum won't be necessary...
...bigger and faster buildup that Westmoreland wanted was unpalatable to the President for domestic reasons, but he was also unpersuaded that it was essential to our effort in Viet Nam. It would have required mobilization of some reserves, and that would have been extremely expensive. Momentarily, the President is expected to renew his January request for a 6% surtax on personal and corporate income taxes, in hopes of whittling down the big budgetary deficit anticipated for the current fiscal year. Calling up the Reserves could have forced him to peg the surtax closer...
Some officers in Westmoreland's command have put out figures indicating that the enemy's total strength has risen from 280,000 to 296,000 in the past six months. But these totals include administrative cadres, line-of-supply forces and part-time guerrillas, and there is endless room for argument about definitions as well as the count. Saigon headquarters sometimes uses the highest possible figures on enemy strength in support of arguments for more U.S. troops, then is naively surprised when the U.S. public figures the war can't be going very well if the enemy...