University of Virginia Library

Offensive Restricted

More important is the
present inability of Communist
forces to launch a conventional
offensive or to wish to do so if
they did. Hanoi appears to
have suffered much when its
spring offensive failed and
American bombing
recommenced. Evidence
suggests it sued for a cease-fire
in early October, partly as a
result of the losses incurred in
the field and at home. The
massive December-January
American bombing raids would
appear, too, to have seriously
damaged what little indigenous
productive resources were
available for direct war
purposes. Now American aid is
tantalizingly dangled before
the North to bribe rather than
bomb Hanoi into a conciliatory
posture. If the carrot falls there
is always the stick of American
air and sea power in Thailand
and off the Vietnam coast as a
forceful guarantee against the
re-escalation of the war.

The accord is, however, not
likely to prevent fully more
killing and coercion through
covert means, especially on the
part of the rival contenders for
power in South Vietnam. The
accord, of course, prohibits