"We're already aiding the Vietnamese in 1,001 ways. But let's not be satisfied when it might prove that the 1,002nd way is the decisive one."
Ever since he spoke those words on his arrival in Saigon last July as the new U.S. ambassador, Maxwell Taylor has been looking for that decisiveĀand elusiveĀ1,002nd way. As of last week, he seemed to be no closer to finding it than when he started. He was locked in an extraordinary battle with the Vietnamese army he was supposed to be "aiding," most notably with Lieut. General Nguyen Khanh. In a deliberate and perhaps desperate move, Taylor...