Southeast Asia: Hitting the Sihanouk Trail

An eerie lull settled over Southeast Asia last week, broken only by the rumble of Polish-built trucks on Red in filtration routes and the steady thump of American bombs aimed at interdicting them. The lull was reflected in South Viet Nam by battle statistics: the Viet Cong and their North Vietnamese allies suffered only 456 dead in the previous week—the lowest toll since January 1965—and even when U.S. air cavalrymen surrounded three Red regiments near Bong Son last week, the bulk of the Communist force slipped furtively away. The enemy battalion that...